LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 






sheif ..J/:iJ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



AN 



OUTLINE HISTORY OF GREECE. 



; 



• 



BY 

JOHN H. VINCENT 

AND 

JAMES R. JOY. 



JliN 13 

r ■ 

NEW YORK: 

Chautauqua Press, C. L. S. C. Department. 

188S. 



The required books of the C. L. S. C. «re recom- 
mended by a Council of Six. It must, however, be 
understood that recommendation does not involve 
an approval by the Council, or by any member of 
it, of every principle or doctrine contained in the 
book recommended. 



THE OTHER BOOKS 

OF THE 

C. L. S. C. COURSE FOR 1888-9. 

PREPARATORY GREEK COURSE IN ENGLISH. Dr. W. C. Wilkinson, 

COLLEGE GREEK COURSE IN ENGLISH. Dr. W. C. Wilkinson. 

ZOOLOGY. J. Dorman Steele. 

CHEMISTRY. Prof. J. H. Appleton. 

THE MODERN CHURCH IN EUROPE. Bishop John F. Hurst. 

THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. Horace Bushnell. 






Copyright, 1888, by Phillips & Hunt, 805 Broadway, New York. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



The Chautauqua Text-book of Greek History,, 
by J. H. Vincent, is the basis of this little vol- 
ume. In chronological plan, as well as in the 
separate treatment of Grecian Geography, His- 
tory, and Biography, the present work follows 
the lines which were laid down in the Text- 
book. In the expansion of the Text-book to 
the proportions of this History reference has 
been made to many standard writings upon the 
subject. In most cases credit is given in the fol- 
lowing pages. In general cordial recognition is 
given of the valuable assistance derived from 
the Universal Histories of Ploetz, Labberton, and 
Fisher, and to the special works of Curteis on 
The Rise of Macedonia, and Cox on The Greeks 
and the Persians, The Athenian Empire, and 
Lives of Greek Statesmen. J. H. V. 

J. R. J. 



INTRODUCTION 



The events which formed the basis of the won- 
derful stories of Homer, about kings and tribes 
and armies and wars, were probably taking place 
in Greece and the neighboring islands and coasts 
from about the time that Moses left Egypt with 
the Children of Israel down to the days when 
Saul, David, and Solomon reigned in Palestine. 
Long before Moses and long after Solomon there 
were occurrences in Greece and its vicinity which, 
if we could only find them out, would make most 
fascinating history. But for all those long years 
fact and fable are so blended in the songs and tra- 
ditions which have come down to us that we can- 
not distinguish, except in a very few cases, 
between the true and the false. 

If a curtain of delicately woven lace, with 
pictures painted upon it, were to hang between us 
and a great number of other pictures and statues, 
with living figures moving about, it would be im- 
possible for us to tell what was natural and what 
artificial. Earliest Greek history is seen through 
the curtain of tradition and poetry that drops 
down about the year B. C. 500. We are compara- 
tively sure of the great body of facts this side of 
that date. Beyond it we can discern some facts, 



6 Introduction. 

but are confused by the greater number of myths 
and traditions. Gods and goddesses and heroes, 
with supernatural powers, performed wonderful 
deeds, which the earliest poets recorded and the 
later poets repeated. Some of these deeds had, 
no doubt, a basis of fact. The gods and heroes 
were real men, who spoke wise words and did 
brave things. Or they were bad men who had 
power and abused it. Armies were organized, 
fleets sailed, Avars were fought, cities were taken ; 
evil arrayed itself against good, and sometimes 
the one and sometimes the other was victorious. 

Tradition magnified and poesy glorified the or- 
dinary and the extraordinary events of those un- 
recorded times. Thus fact grew into fable and 
men into heroes. Principles were personified and 
became deities with divine powers and preroga- 
tives. The genius of the great Homer, and of 
the unknown great singers before him, made per- 
manent these dreams of men, and these illustra- 
tions of the eternal principles which influence our 
race, and in harmony with which God governs 
the universe. J. H. Vincent. 

Plaixfield, N. J., May 1, 1888. 



CONTENTS 



-♦♦•- 



PART ONE-PRELIMINARY. 

Chapter Page 

I. The Land and the People 11 



PART TWO-HISTORY. 

II. Earliest Greece. The Heroic Age 23 

III. Earlier Greece. The Homeric Age 31 

IV. Early Greece. History and Tradition 35 

V. Greater Greece. The Persian Wars 42 

VL Greater Greece (continued). Athens Leads. 

Age op Pericles 55 

VII. Greater Greece (continued). Athens Leads. 

The Peloponnesian War 65 

VIII. Greater Greece (continued). Sparta Leads .... 11 

IX. Greater Greece (continued). Thebes Leads 88 

X. Greater Greece (continued). Macedon Leads. 

Philip's Conquests 93 

XI. Greater Greece (continued). Macedon Leads. 

Alexander and His Successors 103 

XII. Subject Greece. Rome, Byzantium, Turkey 118 

XIII. Liberated Greece The Modern Kingdom 127 



8 Contents. 

PART THREE -BIOGRAPHY. 

Chapter page 

XIV. The Men of Early Times 136 

XV. The Men of Greater Greece 150 

XYI. The Men of Later Greece 189 

Pronunciation 197 

Index , 201 



ANALYSIS. 



-♦■-♦"♦- 



PART ONE-PRELIMINARY. 

The Land and the People. 

PART TWO-HISTORY. 

First Period. Earliest Greece. The Heroic Age. 2000- 
1000 B. C.—1,000 YEARS. 

Second Period. Earlier Greece. The Homeric Age. 1000- 
776 B. C.— 224 years. 

Third Period. Early Greece. History and Tradition. 
776-500 B. C— 276 years. 

*Fourth Period. Greater Greece. The Classical Age. 
500-146 B. C.— 354 years. 

I. The Persian Wars. 500-479 B. C— 21 years. 
II. Athens Leads. 479-404 B. C.— 75 years. 

III. Sparta Leads. 404-371 B. C— 33 years. 

IV. Thebes Leads. 371-361 B. C— 10 years. 

Y. Macedon Leads. 361-146 B. C— 215 years. 

Fifth Period. Subject Greece. The Age of Decline. 
146 B. C.-1829 A. D.— 1,975 years. 

I. Under Rome. 146 B. C.-395 A. D.— 541 years. 
II. Under Byzantium. 395-1453 A. D.— 1,058 years. 
III. Under Turkey. 1453-1829 A. D.— 376 years. 

Sixth Period. Liberated Greece. The Modern Kingdom. 
1829-1888 A. D.— 59 years. 

PART THREE-BIOGRAPHY. 

I. Men of the Early Times. 2000-500 B. C— 1,500 years. 
II. Men of Greater Greece. 500-146 B. C. — 354 years. 
III. Men of Later Greece. 146 B. C.-1888 A. D.— 2,034 years. 

* The fourth, fifth, and sixth periods of this analysis correspond to the 
fourth period, " Historical Greece," of the Chautauqua Text-Book. 



Outline History of Greece. 



♦♦» « 



PART ONE.— PRELIMINARY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 

A short lesson in the Geography of Greece 
forms the necessary introduction to the study of 
Grecian History ; for never had the natural sur- 
roundings of a people greater influence upon na- 
tional character than had the situation and physical 
features of Hellas upon the public and private 
life of the Hellenes.* 

1. Greece Proper occupied the lower portion of 
the easternmost of the three peninsulas — the Span- 
ish, the Italian, and the Balkan — which Europe 
thrusts out into the Mediterranean Sea. It was 
slightly larger than modern Greece, and may 
be likened in size to the Kingdom of Portugal or 
the State of Maine, being about 250 miles long from 
north to south, and 150 miles wide from east to 

* " Greece " and " Greek " are names which we English 
have borrowed from the Romans. The Greeks always called 
their country Hel'las and themselves Helle'nes. 



12 Outline History of Greece. 

west. On the east lay the iEgean Sea, crowded 
with populous islands — so many "patches of 
Hellas " — and still farther toward the rising sun 
were the deeply indented coasts of Asia Minor, 
with a Greek colony nestling by every harbor. 
To the north was Macedonia and the unknown 
country of the "Barbarians." Westward stretched 
the Ionian and Adriatic seas, beyond whose narrow 
waters might sometimes be seen the hazy coasts 
of Italy, where dwelt so many Greeks that for 
centuries the region was called "Great Greece" 
(llagna Grcecia). There, too, was Sicily, where 
Greeks and Carthaginians fought for supremacy 
two centuries before the days of Hannibal and 
Roman Scipio. Southward from Hellas lay the 
broad blue Mediterranean with many prosperous 
towns of Hellenic origin on its farther shore.* 

2. These Greek countries fall naturally into 
four divisions : 

1. Continental or Northern Greece, including 
the mainland from the river Peneius to 
the Gulf of Corinth, and itself divided 

*To all these countries went Greek merchants, Greek 
colonists, and sometimes Greek war-fleets. The distances 
were these, and the mariner need never lose sight of land in 
making his port : 

From Athens to Ephesus (in Asia Minor), 145 miles. 

From Athens to Alexandria (in Egj^pt), 575 miles. 

From Athens to Cyrene (in Africa), 315 miles. 

From Athens to Carthage (in Africa), 725 miles. 

From Athens to Syracuse (in Sicily), 475 miles. 

From Athens to Rhegium (in Great Greece), 500 miles. 



The Land and the People. 13 

into states: Epirus, Thessaly, Acarnania, 
iEtolia, Malis, Locris, Doris, Phocis, 
Boeotia, Megaris, and Attica. 

2. Peninsular or Southern Greece, oftener 

called Peloponnesus (" Pelops' Isle "), 
including all the mainland south of the 
Isthmus of Corinth (four miles wide, 
and walled across), and comprising Cor- 
inthia, Achaia, Argolis, Arcadia, Elis, 
Messenia, and Laconia, the last having 
greater fame as "Lacedsemon," the 
abode of the " Spartans. " 

3. Insular Greece, the Greek-peopled islands 

of the surrounding seas. Chief among 
them, Eubcea, Lesbos, Samos, Chios, De- 
los, Crete, Ithaca, Corcyra, ^Egina, Sal- 
amis, and Rhodes, with a hundred 
others. 

4. Colonial Greece — Cities founded beyond 

the seas by Greek emigrants : 

a.) Beyond the iEgean, along its 
northern shore and on the west- 
ern and northern coasts of Asia 
Minor. 
b.) Beyond the Adriatic, in Southern 
Italy — " Great Greece " — in Sic- 
ily, and even as far west as the 
city now known as Marseilles in 
France, 
c.) Beyond the Mediterranean, in 
Northern Africa. 



14 Outline History of Greece. 

These widely separated lands were never united 
in one vast Greek Empire like that of Rome, 
but all were truly Greek in character and cus- 
toms. 

3. The home country of the Greeks was marked 
by nature as a land — 

1.) Of mountains, 4.) Of islands, 
2.) Of valleys, 5.) Of genial climate, 

3.) Of gulfs, 6.) Of fertile soil. 

The mountains are every- where ; they " occupy 
so large a portion of the area that but little is left 
for level ground or plains : " 

Olympus, in Thessaly, " the mountain of the 
gods," is 10,000 feet high, overlooking 
Hellas " like a huge watch-tower." 
Parnassus, in Phocis, sacred to Apollo nnd 
the Muses, is 8,000 feet high. It is " the 
most massive of Greek mountains," and 
among its foothills were the temple of 
Delphi and the Fountain of Castalia. 
Pelion, in Thessaly, on which Mount Ossa was 
piled by the Titans when they warred 
against the gods, is another celebrated 
peak. " On its slopes grew the pines from 
which the ship Argo was built." 
Pentelicus, in Attica, is 3,900 feet high, and 
from its quarries was taken the marble for 
the Athenian temples. 
Hymettus, only two miles from Athens, is a 
little lower than Pentelicus, and famous 
for its bees and honey. 



The Land and the People. 15 

Long ranges of lofty hills intersect each other, 
and divide the country into isolated valleys — some 
of them completely walled in by mountains, others 
opening upon the sea : 

Between Olympus and Ossa, in Thessaly, is 
the narrow Vale of Tempe, where, accord- 
ing to the mythical story, the water-god 
Poseidon (Neptune) thrust his trident into 
the mountain-side to cleave a way for the 
Peneius to the sea. Through this pass ran 
the road from Macedon to Greece. 
Farther south, in Malis, the mountains ap- 
proached the sea so closely as to leave only 
a cart-path between their base and the 
water. This was the famous Pass of Ther- 
mopylw, " the key of Greece." 
Below the holy temple of Delphi, in Phocis, 
was the plain of Apollo, called the Sacred 
Plain, and which it was sacrilege to culti- 
vate. The hills of Elis shut in the Plain 
of Olympia, where all Greece met once in 
four years to celebrate the Olympic games 
in honor of their chief god, Zeus (Jupiter). 
Inclosed by two towering ranges, in the 
south, lay the Valley of Sparta — " Hollow 
Laced aemon " — where grew up the most ex- 
clusive and conservative people of the 
Grecian world. 
The highlands push their arms far out into the 
sea, inclosing spacious gulfs and landlocked bays. 
Countless islands dot the neighboring waters " like 



16 Outline History of Greece. 

stepping-stones " across the Adriatic and the 

JEgean. 

" Sprinkled isles, 
Lily on lily, that o'erlace the sea 
And laugh their pride where the light wave lisps Greece." 

" The iEgean Islands are extremely rocky, 
and rise into lofty peaks of beautiful form." 
They are " sprinkled " so thickly as to form 
a dotted line of harbors and beacons which 
serve to guide and shelter the adventurous 
mariner. 
Here is Lemnos, the isle on which Vulcan, the 
luckless fire-god, fell from the battlements 
of heaven, " dropped from the zenith like a 
falling star." 
Farther south is JPatmos, where St. John 
dwelt in exile. Near this Christian land- 
mark is the island of Delos, where heathen 
Apollo had a famous shrine. 
Near the Asiatic coast is Rhodes, once the 
wonder of the world for its " Colossus," and 
due south from the Peloponnesus is Crete, 
the fabled home of the Minotaur. 
The traveler passing from Thessaly to Sparta 
experiences every gradation of temperature from 
a cool climate to one of semi-tropical warmth ; but 
the sea breezes, penetrating to almost every por- 
tion of the country, render the air healthful and 
invigorating, and in certain localities — Attica, 
among others — the atmosphere is noted for its 
crystal clearness. The soil, though less fertile 



The Land and the People. 17 

than the rich plains of Sicily and Egypt, yielded 
a generous return for the labors of the husband- 
man, and the vine, the olive, and the fig throve 
luxuriantly. 

4. The people who dwelt in these isolated val- 
leys, along this winding sea-coast, and upon these 
wave-washed islands, possessed a strong individu- 
ality among the nations of antiquity. 
The Greeks were peculiar — 

1.) In their originality,* 

2.) In their fine taste, 

3.) In their enterprise, 

4.) In their versatility, 

5.) In their daring. 
They shoiced the icay into new paths in govern- 
ment, in literature, in philosophy, and in art. 
Their sense of proportion was so exquisitely 
developed that we have still to look to their 
orations, their sculptures, and their buildings for 
our most excellent models of simplicity and per- 
fect taste. Their enterprise planted colonies from 
the farthest shores of the Black Sea to the Pillars 
of Hercules. Their versatility is unquestioned. 
" No race ever did so manv things well as the 
Greeks." Greek names lead in nearly every depart- 
ment of the world's activity. The isolated coast 
villagers could reach their neighbors only by sea; 
the in-shore islands and the many promontories 

*"In Greece every tiling 1 , whether forms of government, 
literature, art, or philosoph}-, is all Quite fresh, and not bor- 
rowed from any other people.'' — E. A. Freeman. 
2 



18 Outline History of Greece. 

were a boon to the daring navigator, who had no 
help from compass and sextant. With such poor 
guides the bold Greek sailor skirted the Mediter- 
ranean, and a few of the more adventurous spirits 
shook out their sails to the Atlantic winds and 
followed the shores of Western Europe to the 
German Ocean. " Men of the sword as well as 
men of the sea," it was a Greek army and navy 
that stood as the sole but sufficient barrier between 
Europe and the East when the hordes of Persia 
threatened to overwhelm the continent with bar- 
barism. Truly, an original, tasteful, enterprising, 
versatile, and daring race were these men of 
Greece, whose history we are about to study. 

5. The Greek colonies were divided from the 
mother-country by many leagues of dreary and 
dangerous sailing; and even the districts of the 
mainland had little communication with one 
another, yet as a people they were in some degree 
united. The men of Hellas, of island Greece, 
nnd of colonial Greece held certain things in com- 
mon. They were — 

1.) One in origin, 

2.) One in religion, 

3.) One in language, 

4.) One in literature, 

5.) One in social customs, 

6.) One in religious festivals. 
The three Greek tribes — Ionians, Dorians, JEoli- 
ans — traced their origin back to a common parent, 
Ilellen, from whom they derived their general 



The Laxd and the People. 10 

name, Hellenes. They were undoubtedly of one 



stock — the same great Aryan family from which 
their Roman neighbors sprang, and of which we 
Anglo-Saxons are later offspring. All were 
believers in the same religion — a species of pan- 
theism, in which the powers of nature were wor- 
shiped as personal deities. The strange stories 
told of the gods and demi-gods were a part of the 
traditions of every Greek land. The three tribes 
spoke dialects of one noble language — dialects 
differing so slightly that a Dorian had no difficulty 
in understanding the speech of his Ionic or iEolic 
brothers — and the literature of one tribe was 
known and prized by all. Homer's sublime poems, 
the " Iliad " and the " Odyssey," composed, in all 
probability, in the Greek cities of Asia Minor, were 
familiar to Greeks of every state, and even from 
the earliest historical times. The social customs 
of the race were much the same every- where 
except in Sparta, where a unique and memorable 
system was founded upon the law T s of Lycurgus. 
But stronger than the ties of a common origin, 
with the resulting unity of religion, language, 
literature, and social customs, was the close con- 
tact into which the people were brought by the 
religions festivals. In these alone the divided states 
cf Hellas made public recognition of their unity. * 

*" Every Greek, and none out Greeks, might take part." 
This was an important point, and even the Macedonian kings 
were compelled to prove their Greek descent before they were 
allowed to enter their chariot-teams in the Olympic games. 



20 Outline History of Greece, 

Twice a year the states of the mainland sent 
delegates to the Amphictyonic Council 
(Neighbor's Council), which had charge of 
the national sanctuary of the god Apollo. 
In the spring this gathering was held at 
Delphi, where were the temple and oracle 
of Apollo ; in the autumn at Anthela (near 
Thermopylae), where the goddess Ceres was 
worshiped. 

Besides this solemn religious council there 
were four national festivals or games 
shared by all Greeks : 

1. Olympic (every fifth year), in honor 

of Jupiter. Held on the plain of 
Olympia, in El is. 

2. Pythian (third year of each Olympiad), 

in honor of Apollo. Held near 
Delphi, in Phocis. 

3. Isthmian (biennial), in honor of Nep- 

tune. Held on Corinthian Isthmus. 

4. Nemean (biennial), in honor of the 

Nernean Jupiter. Held at Nemea, 

in the Peloponnesus. 
Yet, with all these forces tending to produce 
unity, union never came. From the earliest dawn 
of history until the day when she passed under 
the sway of Macedon, Greece remained only a 
geographical expression for a collection of jealous 
states, each striving for the leadership, and there 
was no concert of action except on that single 
memorable occasion when the Greek world was 



The Land and the People. 21 

threatened by sucli an onslaught of Persian bar- 
barians as to stifle for a brief space the discord of 
domestic war. 

6. The people of Greece, one in blood, lan- 
guage, and religion, were divided — 

1.) By geographical conditions, 
2.) By their intense individuality. 

We have seen how the Greeks were separated 
by mountain walls and arms of the sea. These 
isolated communities grew to be more and 
more self-contained. They formed a clannish 
people like the Scottish Highlanders, and the 
petty quarrels of their chiefs w r ere perpetuated in 
tribal hatred. A spirit of independence was 
deeply implanted in the breast of every Greek. 
" Every man of them had a mind of his own," 
and what is true of them individually is strikingly 
true of their political unit — the city. They would 
form no confederation or union wherein the indi- 
vidual members must sacrifice the least of their 
own rights to the general good. From first to 
last such combinations remained impossible. A 
Greek city might grow in strength and compel its 
weaker neighbors to follow in its train. But some 
jealous rival was sure to find envious allies eager 
to crush the threatening upstart back into insig- 
nificance. It w r as this inherent political weakness 
that caused the successive overthrow of Athens, 
of Sparta, of Thebes, and of Macedon, and led to 
the final subjection of disunited Greece to the 
consolidated strength of Rome. 



22 Outline History of Greece. 



student's review outline. 

1. Bonn, of Greece. — iEg., Mac, lo., Ad., Med. 
— Distances to E., Al., Cy., Car., Syr., Rhe. 

2. Divisions of Greece. — Con., Pen., In., Col. 
(a, b, c). 

3. Peculiarities of Greece. — A land of M., V., 
G., I., G-C, F-S. 

Mou.— 01., Par., Pel., Pen., Hym. 
Val.— Tern., Tker., Sac-PL, Ol., Spar. . 
Is!.— Mil, Lem., Pat., Del., Rho., Cre. 

4. Peculiarities of Greeks. — A people of O., 
F-T., E., V., D. 

5. Sources of Greek unity. — O., R., La., Li., 
S-C, R-F. 

6. Sources of Greek disunion, — G-C, Ind. 

examination. 

By what name did the Greeks call themselves 
and their country ? 

Give the boundaries of Greece. 

Name the four general divisions of the Greek 
world. 

Give the distance from Athens to Ephesus, Al- 
exandria, Cyrene, Carthage, Syracuse, Rhegium. 

Name a few of the states in each of the four 
divisions. 

Name the six peculiarities of the land. 

Name five noted mountains, five valleys or 
plains, and five Greek islands. 

Name five peculiarities of the Greeks as a people. 

Name the six causes of Greek unity. 

Name the two main sources of Greek disunion. 



Eakujcst Greece — The Heroic Age. 26 



PART TWO.— HISTORY. 



CHAPTER II. 

FIRST PERIOD. 

EARLIEST GREECE — THE HEROIC AGE. 
(2000-1000 B. c", 1,«00 years.) 

Greek civilization was the greatest but not the 
earliest of the ancient world. No continuous 
record of its growth remains ; and it is only by 
connecting a few isolated points that Ave are en- 
abled to construct an outline of the history of 
Greece from the remotest times. 

Before the year 1000 B. C. several Eastern na- 
tions had risen to prominence. Egypt had already 
reached the summit of her grandeur, and was now 
declining, leaving the pyramids, temples, and obe- 
lisks of the Nile valley to bear lasting witness to 
her former splendor. About the year 2000 B. C. 
the patriarch Abram had been born in Ilr of the 
Ch ddees, and the ten centuries which followed 
saw his removal to Canaan, the career of Joseph 
in Egypt, the long sojourn of the Israelites in that 
country and their exodus under Moses. Led by 
Joshua and the later judges, they had made their 
way into the " promised land," where they dwelt 
after 1451 B. C. under the rule of the earlier kings. 



24 Outline History of Greece. 

The year 1000 B. C. finds Solomon, their proudest 
monarch, on the Hebrew throne. 

In the sea-coast cities of Canaan (Tyre and Si- 
don chief among them) lived the Phenicians, an 
enterprising merchant people, daring in commerce, 
if not in war. Their colonies were planted in the 
uttermost parts of the earth — less distant then than 
now — and it may be that the storms of this very 
year 1000 B. C. buffeted the ships of Hiram, King 
of Tyre, laden with gold and cabinet woods, from 
Tarshish (Spain) for the temple which his neigh- 
bor Solomon was building at Jerusalem in honor 
of Jehovah. The subjects of King Hiram had a 
wonderful invention, and one which thev could not 
keep always to themselves. It was the alphabet. 

While the Egyptians, Hebrews, Phenicians — 
the Chaldeans and the Chinese as well, in the more 
remote East — were thus making a great stir in the 
world and leaving written memorials of their 
deeds, the Greeks, a few hundred miles away on 
the northern shore of the Mediterranean, were do- 
ing we hardly know what. No carved stone nor 
written parchment exists to tell the story of life 
in those dark ages. 

By a comparison of the Greek language with 
those of the surrounding nations, and by a close 
study of the Greek traditions — which are as un- 
trustworthy as they are plentiful — a few historical 
facts have been established with some appro ich 
to certainty. The history of the Greeks previous 
to the year 1000 B. C. was brietly this : 



Earliest Greece — The Heroic Age. 



"Id 



As a race, the Greeks were members of the 
Aryan family, which in prehistoric times sent out 
its offspring, nation by nation, from the old home 
in the Persian highlands to people India, Asia 
Minor, and Western Europe. The sturdy Ro- 
mans and the Teutons (Germans) of whom we 
Anglo-Saxons are a branch, are doubtless later 
comers from the same old home, and therefore 
distant kindred of these Hellenes who came pour- 
ing into Northern Greece on some wave of west- 
ward migration twenty or thirty centuries before 
the birth of Christ. They found the land already 
occupied. The Pelasgians, the simple shepherd folk 
who had long pasiured their flocks and herds in 
its green valleys and on its steep hill sides, opposed 
little or no resistance to the invading hosts. They 
disappeared utterly in the course of time, being 
either absorbed by the stronger race or driven 
out of the country. A few mossy ruins, like the 
Druid stones of Britain or the mounds of the Mis- 
sissippi valley, alone survived— mysterious objects 
to the later Greeks, who ascribed them to an an- 
cient mythical nation of one-eyed giants, the Cy- 
clops. 

The new-comers were divided more or less 
clearly into three tribes : the Dorians, dwelling 
north of the Gulf of Corinth, the lonians and 
iEolians, inhabiting the Peloponnesus; The latter 
tribes were the first to develop, and it was among 
them that the cities of Ti.ryns and Mycenae 
reached the wealth and power winch are revealed 



26 Outline IIistoky of Greece. 

by Dr. Schliemann's researches among their ruins.* 
But the Dorians, more numerous and more war- 
like than their more cultured brethren, were 
tempted by the accumulated riches of the south- 
ern cities. They came first in marauding bands, 
later in invading armies, and finally with then- 
families and flocks to enter and possess the land. 
This constitutes the Dorian Invasion, the most 
notable epoch in the early history of the Greeks. 
The country south of the Isthmus of Corinth be- 
came largely Dorian. The lonians retired to At- 
tica and to the islands and shores of the ^Egean. 
The iEolians were huddled into the north-western 
part of the Peloponnesus, and thence spread over 
the northern shores of the Gulf of Corinth. Two 
cities gradually grew into prominence, until they 
assumed the position of champions of the two 
leading rac.s: Athens in Ionic Attica, and Sparta 
in Doric Laeonia, 

* Dr. Henry Schliemann, a German by birth but a citizen of 
the United States, an admirer of the Homeric poems from 
earliest boyhood, has devo'ed his time and fortune to the iden- 
tification of the ancient cities, Troy and Mycenae, of which 
the poet sings. He has unearthed an ancient city, at His- 
sariik, in Asia Minor, which strong evidence proves to be 
none oilier than "Troy divine." In Greece he has excavated 
the " Cyclopean " ruins of Tiryns, and most important of all, the 
"treasure houses of Mycenae." Here in 1876-77 he discov- 
ered the market place of the early city, the ruins of the king'? 
palace, and the royal tomb in which lay the remains of five 
human bodies, richly ornamented with gold. These Dr. 
Schliemann claims to be the remains of Agamemnon and his 
royal family, the king who led the Greeks in the siege of Troy. 



Earliest Greece — The Heroic Age. 27 

Even had they so desired, the Greeks could not 
have kept themselves isolated from the world very 
long. The two active Mediterranean nations of 
the time were Egypt and Phenicia, and each left 
its mark upon the early history of Greece, al- 
though the lapse of centuries has so blurred the 
impression that it can hardly be deciphered now. 
But the three nations surely came in contact in 
the earliest times. The Greeks, who carried to 
great lengths their curious habit of personifying 
every influence which they felt, explained this 
matter very deftly. They said that Cadmus, a 
Phenician, brought to Greece the priceless treas- 
ure of his race, the alphabet, and founded Thebes 
city in Boeotia. Cecrops, an Egyptian, so tradition 
said, founded the city Athens, and Danaus, his 
fellow-countryman, brought his Egyptian customs 
and his fifty Egyptian daughters to the founding 
of the town of Argos. From Phrygia, in North- 
ern Asia Minor, came other immigrants, whom the 
Greeks classed as one man — Pelops, from whom 
the Peloponnesus (Pelops' Isle) takes its name. 
In this fanciful way the Greeks expressed their 
well-grounded belief that their nation learned the 
alphabet from the Phenicians, and was indebted 
to Egypt and Asia for other customs, arts, and 
ideas. These tales about the exploits of Cadmus 
and his fellows are fair examples of the form in 
winch the history of Earliest Greece has been 
handed down to obscurity. Where we look for a 
straightforward account of the making of Greece, 



28 Outline History of Greece. 

the efforts of the first settlers to subdue man and 
nature, and to civilize themselves, we find a great 
body of wh.it appear to be fairy-tales. They 
are filled with the marvelous deeds of demi-«;ods 
or heroes — creatures in the form of men, but 
gifted with superhuman powers. These strange 
beings have their hunting excursions, their naval 
expeditions, and their wars. They encounter sor- 
cerers, floating islands, harpies, and dragons. 
Among them are the Centaurs (half-man, half- 
horse), the Minotaur (half-man, half-bull), Cer- 
berus (the three-headed dog), Medusa, with ser- 
pent-hair, and scores of like monsters. 

Every Greek knew these stories. They were a 
pai't of the public education. Every one believed 
them — they were a part of the national religion; 
and among the heroes and monsters moved the 
immortal gods themselves, scheming and quar- 
reling, for all the world, like ordinary men and 
women. This mass of entertaining fable, though 
almost worthless as history, has sunk deep into 
the literature of Europe. It was familiar to all 
Greeks of every age and country, and from it the 
poet and artist most frequently chose the subject 
of his tragedy or sculpture. The Romans, always 
reliant upon Greek models, decked their prose 
and poetry with allusions to the gods and heroes 
of the Greeks ; although for a time the rise of 
Christianity gave new subjects to artists and men 
of letters, the Revival of Learning in Western 
Europe gave to the gods and heroes of ancient 



Earliest Greece — The Heroic Age. 29 

Greece their old place in the writings of the 
world. Italy, France, and England went to the 
old storehouse for the wealth of classical allusion 
which has adorned the literature and art of Eu- 
rope until the present time. 

The countless traditions of the heroic age 
group themselves in general around four events, 
or series of events, and although the study of 
these things belongs to mythology, the historian 
may not leave this period without giving by name, 
at least, the classification of the principal Greek 
myths : 

1. The Slap Argo, manned by Thessalian heroes 
under Prince Jason, sailed away to Colchis, on the 
eastern shore of the Euxine (Black Sea), on an 
eventful but successful voyage in search of the 
famous " Golden Fleece." 

2. Hercules, the mighty son of the chief god, 
Zeus (Jupiter), grew up to manhood over fright- 
ful obstacles, and accomplished twelve marvelous 
labors, each a mine of suggestive fable. 

3. The Calydonian Boar-hunt. Several of Ja- 
son's returned companions — Mel eager, Theseus, 
and others — went on an expedition to rid the 
Peloponnesus of the wild boar which Diana had 
sent to ravage the country in return for some 
affront. 

4. The Trojan War. Paris, son of the King of 
Troy, in North-western Asia Minor, stole away 
the wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta. The latter, 
with her brother Agamemnon, King of Mycenssj 



30 



Outline History of Greece. 



roused the Greeks to war, besieged Troy ten 
years, and conquered it after the heroes of both 
sides had performed prodigies of valor. 



NAMES TO REMEMBER. 



Egyptians, Hebrews, Phenicians, Phrygians, 
Aryans, Hellenes, Pelasgians, Dorians, lonians, 
./Eolians, Cecrops, Pelops, Danaus, Cadmus, Ja- 
son, Hercules, Theseus, Achilles. 




HEAD OF MEDUSA. 



Earlier Greece — The Homeric Age. 31 



CHAPTER III. 

SECOND PERIOD. 

EARLIER GREECE THE HOMERIC AGE. 

(1000-776 B. C, 224 years.) 

With the year 1000 B. C. the first period of 
Grecian history — the age of heroes and of fable — 
may be said to close. Henceforth a clearer light 
illumines the lives and fortunes of the Greeks. 
But between this date and the year 776 B. C., 
when we gain first foothold upon the terra fir ma 
of authentic history, intervene two centuries, which 
we may class together as the " Age of Homer." 

Tradition, hitherto almost our only source of 
information, is now re-enforced by Poetry. At 
the national games, which were early celebrated 
in Greece in honor of the gods, singers chanted 
the glories of the past. Before the days of al- 
phabets and written languages their songs were 
committed to memory in fragments by the people, 
and were united into connected stories by the. 
genius of poets now forgotten. After centuries 
these hymns were collected and invested with new 
life by the immortal Homer. Among a thousand 
lesser lights he was the one ereat sun whose ravs 
reached the period of authentic history. He lived 
on the Greek coast of Asia Minor somewhere 



32 Outline History of Greece. 

between the years 1000 and 850 B. C. Hesiod, 
another poet, a Boeotian, lived a few generations 
later. The two poems of Homer — the " Iliad " and 
the " Odyssey" — were the chief subjects of Greek 
education.* They were studied by the youths, 
recited at the public festivals by professional 
declaimers (rhapsodists), philosophers lectured 
upon them, and for ages the Greeks looked to 
these writings as the Hebrews looked to their 
Bible — as their chief, if not their only, guide in law 
and morals. The poems are interesting to us not 
only for the place winch they hold in the history 
of Greek culture, but because through them their 
author or authors played the part of historians. 
While writing: of the doings of the heroes who 
were encamped about the walls of Troy, Homer 
revealed to us incidentally the peculiarities of the 
actual life of the Greeks of the period, social, civil, 
and religious. We learn that the people were 
divided into tribes, each of which occupied sev- 
eral 'villages. The tribe was ruled by a king, who 
was assisted in the government by a council of 
chiefs, in which the voice of the old men and 
famous warriors carried the greatest weight. The 
women were well treated, and polygamy was uii- 

* The " Iliad " and " Odyssey " are both yevy long ep ; c 
poems — story poems — connected with the Trojan war. The 
"Iliad "gives the history of the siege and the "Odyssey" 
tells of the wanderings and strange adventures of Ulysses 
(Odysseus), a wise Greek chief, on the return voyage from 
the plains cf the Ilium (Troy) to his island home at Ithaca. 



Earlier Greece — The Homeric Age. 33 

lawful. Slavery was established every-where. The 
wives, even of the kings, spun and wove, and the 
arts and manufactures were in a very simple stage. 
Gold and bronze were the principal metals, and 
the warriors fought with spears or arrows from 
chariots or on foot. 

During this period the rival powers, Sparta and 
Athens, laid the foundations of their eminence, 
though some of the Greek colonies, with which 
the Dorian invasion had sprinkled the islands and 
eastern shore of the ^Egean, were for a time more 
flourishing than the towns of the mother country. 
Sparta attributed her greatness to Lycurgus, who 
lived about 820 B. C, and framed her constitution. 
Under his laws Sparta became the chief military 
nation of antiquity. Her people were divided 
into three classes: 1) The Spartans proper, who 
had the full rights of citizenship ; 2) the Peri- 
ceci, who were free, but had neither vote nor 
voice in the government and paid tribute to the 
State; and 3) the Helots, who were the slaves, 
not of private citizens, but of the State. The 
laws were for the Spartans alone, and were so 
devised as to give the State the most effective 
army possible. The chief city was little more 
than a military camp. Young men were subjected 
to hardship and discipline from the age of seven 
years, in order to inure them to the trials of war. 
Thus the Spartans became a rough, strong race of 
soldiers, few in numbers, but unequaled on any 
battlefield of ancient times. Their government 
3 



34 Outline History of Greece. 

was as peculiar as their social life. Two kings 
led the troops to war, performed the sacrifices, and 
pronounced judgment in the courts of law ; but 
their power was limited by a council of elders (28 
old men) elected by the Spartan citizens. In later 
times a smaller council of five Ephors gained suffi- 
cient power to control even the kings. In all times 
the Spartan government was neither a monarchy 
(government by one) nor a democracy (government 
by the whole people). It was what the Greeks 
called an oligarchy, the rule of the few, in which 
the chief authority was exercised by a limited 
class, whose eminence was due to age, wealth, or 
birth. This form of government is characteristic 
of Sparta, and of every state or city of which she 
became mistress. 

The constitution of Athens developed more 
slowly, and very differently. In the earliest times 
the Athenians were ruled by kings ; but Codrus, 
the last of the royal line, died 1,000 years before 
the birth of Christ. The monarchy was succeeded 
by an oligarchy, the Eupatrids (nobility — "blue 
bloods ") putting one of their own number at the 
head of the State, with the title of Archon (ruler). 
Both Athens and Sparta are, therefore, under 
similar governments in the year 776 B. C, when 
this half -mythical, half -historical era draws to a 
close. 

NAMES TO REMEMBER. 

Homer, Hesiod, Lycurgus, Codrus, Spartans. 
Perioeci, Helots, Ephors, Archons, Eupatrids. 



Early Greece— History and Tradition. 35 



CHAPTER IV. 

THIRD PERIOD. 

EARLY GREECE — HISTORY AND TRADITION. 

(776-500 B. C— 276 years.) 

The various countries of Greece, divided by 
natural boundaries and tribal jealousies, were un- 
able to organize a strong central government ; but 
the necessities of their position compelled them to 
form treaties and confederacies which embraced 
sometimes a few and sometimes a majority of the 
states. The same common interest led them to 
establish national games — which were like magnifi- 
cent State fairs in some respect*, but very differ- 
ent in others — lasting for a number of da vs. 
These occasions quieted animosities, suspended 
wars, and brought the people together for compe- 
tition in athletic and intellectual performances. 
The grandest of these, as we have seen, was the fes- 
tival of Olympian Zeus, which was held every fifth 
year at Olympia in Elis. All Greeks attended it, 
and strangers were present from all parts of the 
world. The highest conceivable honor for a Greek 
was to carry off the prize in the foot-race in these 
Olympic Games. As the Romans reckoned time 
from the founding of the imperial city, Islam from 
the flight of its " prophet," and Christendom from 



36 Outline History of Greece. 

the birth of the Saviour, so the Greeks counted all 
events by Olympiads, the first of which corre- 
sponds to the year 776 B. C* From the first 
Olympiad to the time of the Persian Avars (500 
B. C.) was a period of great political activity in 
Greece, and, although we must still place our main 
dependence upon the traditions which were handed 
down by word of mouth for several generations, 
we can generally distinguish the facts from the 
exaggerations with which they are encumbered. 

The constitution of Lycurgus, with its rigid laws 
and stern discipline, had given Sparta a surpassing 
military power, which she now proceeded to exer- 
cise upon her neighbors. Messenia, the country 
which shared with Laconia the southern portion 
of the Peloponnesus, was first attacked by Sparta 
and rendered tributary after a war of nineteen 
years' duration (743-724 B. C). After enduring 
thirty-nine years of servitude the Messenians re- 
volted, and for seventeen years stubbornly resisted 
the most vigorous assaults of their foe. This war 
began in G85 B. C. and lasted until 668 B. C, when 
the Spartans reconquered the Messenians. Those 
who escaped fled to Southern Italy, while the less 
fortunate survivors were made helots, and com- 
pelled as slaves to till the soil of which they had 
once been the proprietors. It was in this second 

*The Olympic Games were celebrated long previous to 776 
B. C, but tliis was the first year for which the name of the 
winner is recorded. A date was given as " OL 90. 2," if it 
was the second year of the ninetieth Olympiad. 



Early Greece — History and Tradition. 37 

Messeman war that the Spartan troops were en- 
couraged by the sjDirited war-songs of Tyrtaeus, the 
lame school-master bard whose name has since 
clung to martial poetry. These two Messenian 
wars were to the Spartan armies what the campaign 
of Sadowa was to the soldiers of Prussia ; they 
proved the supremacy of an untried military system, 
and led the way to further conquests. The South 
was already hers, and in another hundred years her 
invincible arms had overcome the Arcadians and the 
Argives on the north. "Sparta," says Fisher, 
" gained the right to command in every war which 
should be waged in common by the Pelopon- 
nesian States, the right, also, to determine the 
contingent which each should furnish, and to pre- 
side in the council of the confederacy." Wherever 
she gained the leadership she did her utmost to 
set up an oligarchic government like her own. In 
her efforts to extend her authority beyond the 
peninsula where she was supreme, Sparta came in 
conflict with the Athenian State, which had been 
developing upon a widely different system. 

By slow degrees the Athenian nobles succeeded 
in converting the ancient monarchy into an oli- 
garchy in which noble birth was the chief qualifi- 
cation for office. At first a single Archon of royal 
blood was elected for life. After 752 B. C* the 
term was fixed at ten years, and the nobles were 
declared eligible for the position. From 683 B. C. 
nine Archons were elected yearly, and only nobles 
* According to tradition Rome was founded ?53 B. C. 



38 Outline History of Greece. 

were eligible. In this way the "blue-bloods" 
(Eupatrids) usurped the supreme power, which 
they used to oppress the citizens. The people 
complained of this arbitrary rule, but their only 
answer was from the Archon Draco (624 B. C.) 
who drew up a code of criminal laws so severe in 
their penalties that they were said to be " written 
in blood." Solon (Archon 594 B. C), one of the 
" seven wise men of Greece," undertook to relieve 
the people. A new constitution was adopted 
which took the power from the nobles and gave 
it to the rich. The citizens (in which term slaves 
and foreign residents were not included) were di- 
vided into four classes, according to the amount of 
landed property which they possessed. Each class 
had a certain share in the government and certain 
military obligations. The laws of Draco were 
repealed and a milder code was enacted. This 
constitution was more democratic than any that 
Sparta ever had, but was only a step in the direc- 
tion of the ultimate development of Athenian 
politics. Before taking the next forward stride 
Athens suffered a reaction. 

The oligarchies which Sparta had saddled upon 
her subject states were most galling to the com- 
mon people. These had borne with patience the 
sway of kings, whom they believed to be the lineal 
descendants of their gods, but they had less respect 
and no love for their new rulers, who by reason of 
wealth or noble birth had stepped into the place 
of power. The masses used their united strength 



Early Greece — History and Tradition. 39 

to cast down the mighty from their seats and exalt 
them of low degree. The people were the demos 
and their leader was the demagogue. He was 
commonly an unscrupulous politician who seized 
for himself the reins of power which the enraged 
populace had wrenched from the hands of their 
former rulers. These demagogues, once in power, 
knew no law but their own sweet will, and the 
Greeks called them all tyrants whether they ruled 
well or ill. This "Age of Tyrants " began with 650 
B. C. and lasted nearly 150 years. The Greek 
cities were in some ways benefited by this period 
of despotic rule. The common people fared bet- 
ter than they had under the oligarchies, for the 
despots, who ow T ed their existence to popular favor, 
sought to please the people. Thus Periander, 
though cruel, made Corinth great and prosperous, 
and Poly crates enriched his island court of Samos 
beyond all precedent. 

Pisistratus, himself a nobleman, w r as the scheming 
politician who captured the government of Athens 
at this juncture and became tyrant of the city 
(560 B. C). He did not revoke the constitution 
of Solon, but persuaded the people to choose his 
men to office, and so ruled absolutely but with- 
in the forms of law. Twice driven into exile by 
the oligarchical party, he twice regained his power, 
and until his death, in 527 B. C, ruled the Athenians 
wisely and well. In his time the adornment of 
the city with statues and public buildings was be- 
gun, a library was established under his patronage, 



40 Outline History of Greece. 

and he took care to have official copies of the poems 
of Homer made and kept in the archives of the state. 
Hippias, his son, succeeded him, and ruled mildly, 
together with his younger brother Hipparchus, 
until the latter was slain by the friends Harmodius 
and Aristogiton (514 B. C), after which Hippias 
oppressed the people so that they rose against him 
and, with the aid of the old nobility and the Spar- 
tans — always ready to lend a hand to pull down 
a rival — dragged him from the throne and ex- 
pelled him from the country. He went to Asia 
Minor, and thence to the court of the King of 
Persia, still cherishing the bitter memory of his 
disgrace. Athens heard from him again. 

The expulsion of the Pisistratidse (the sons of 
Pisistratus) was followed by a momentous change 
in the Athenian constitution. Clisthenes, the 
nobleman who had headed the revolt against the 
tyrant Hippias, afterward sided with the people. 
With their support he introduced radical reforms 
into the political and social condition of the com- 
munity. Instead of the four historic tribes of 
Attica he divided all the free citizens into ten 
tribes. The old popular assembly of Solon's time 
he enlarged and clothed with greater power, re- 
ducing the authority of the Archons. " Ostracism 
was introduced, the power by which the popular 
assembly might decree by a secret ballot (using 
ostraka, bits of shell) and without trial the 
banishment of any person who should be adjudged 
dangerous to the public weal." This completed 



Early Greece — History axd Tradition. 41 

the political evolution of Athens. Henceforth 
she stands as the representative democracy of 
Greece, opposed in nearly every undertaking by 
Sparta and the oligarchic states of the Pelopon- 
nesus. 

The old Athenian nobilitv made one more 
effort to overthrow Clisthenes and his reforms 
(507 B. C), but, after momentary success, they 
and their Spartan allies were defeated, and the 
Athenian democracy was left to itself for a hun- 
dred years. Before its brightest flower unfolded 
or its choicest fruit came to maturity, Athens, 
Sparta, and the whole Greek world were threat- 
ened by a deadly peril. Then, for the first and 
only time in their career, did the Greeks realize 
that they must stand by each other as brethren or 
fall before the arms of Persia. They were equal 
to the danger, and by their resistance to the Per- 
sian invaders saved themselves, and Western 
Europe as well, from subjection to the civilization 
of the East. The next period in Grecian history 
forms an important epoch in the history of the 
world. 




42 Outline History of Greece. 



CHAPTER V. 

FOURTH PERIOD, 

GREATER GREECE — THE CLASSICAL AGE. 

(500-146 B. C— 354 years.) 

The period of about three hundred and fifty years 
upon which this history now enters is one of the 
most momentous in the history of the world. All 
that precedes this time in Greece has been merely 
preparation ; what comes after it is mainly decline. 
It will be convenient to divide this period into 
five parts : 

I. The Persian Wars, "500-479 B. C. 
II. Athens Leads, 479-404 B. C. 

III. Sparta Leads, 404-371 B. C. 

IV. Thebes Leads, 371-361 B. C. 
V. Macedon Leads, 361-146 B. C. 

I. THE PERSIAN AVARS, 500-479 B. C, TWENTY-ONE 

YEARS. 

We have seen that Hippias, the son of Pisis- 
tratus, was expelled from Athens, where he had 
ruled as a despot. We know, too, how the re- 
former Clisthenes had given the Athenians a 
republican government, which the nobles and the 
Spartans tried in vain to overthrow. Hippias, 



Greater Greece — The Classical Age. 43 

also, had applied to Sparta for help in reseating 
himself at Athens, but the Peloponnesian States 
had had enough of despots, and refused to join the 
godless undertaking of foisting such a tyrant even 
upon an unfriendly neighbor. The exiled prince 
left Greece and sought the court of the Persian 
king. 

While the Greeks were pursuing their own 
course in their peninsula and colonies a new nation 
had grown up in the far East, led by Cyrus the 
Great, the founder of a great empire. The Persians 
had conquered all Asia. It was Cyrus who sur- 
prised Babylon in the midst of the drunken revel 
of Belshazzar and his princes, and it was the same 
monarch who allowed the captive Hebrews to re- 
turn to Jerusalem and to commence the rebuilding 
of Jehovah's temple. His son, Cambyses, whom 
the Bible records under the name Ahasuerus, 
added Egypt and the Phenician coast cities to 
his dominions. In 521 Darius, the mightiest of 
Persian monarchs, came to the throne. It was to 
his court at Susa that the revengeful Hippias ap- 
pealed for aid in reinstating himself at Athens. 

The condition of affairs in the West smoothed 
the way for the execution of the designs of the 
exiled despot. The Greeks and Persians had 
already come in contact. The Greek cities that 
nestled among the indentations of the coast of 
Asia Minor were rich and prosperous. The same 
traits which made the Greeks of the mother 
country the brilliant people that they were had 



44 Outline History of Greece. 

fostered the growth of literature, art, and com- 
merce among these colonies. But it was one of the 
same national characteristics which brought about 
their ruin. They were no more capable of form- 
ing a political union for defense than were their 
brethren in the West. When Croesus, therefore, 
the mighty King of Lydia — remembered as the 
wealthiest man of all the ancient world — put 
forth his strength to draw these rich communities 
to himself, they could not combine to resist his 
armies. He compelled them to pay tribute into 
his overflowing treasury. This was about the 
year 555 B. C. In 550 B. C, Croesus, infatuated 
with success, attacked the Persians, and, losing, 
lost his fortune, his kingdom, and with it the 
tributary cities. 

About fifty years later the Ionian cities — those 
whose people were akin to the men of Attica and 
Athens on the opposite side of the iEgean — as- 
serted their independence of the Persian king. 
The Ionians of Athens and Er atria, a city of Eu- 
boea, sent aid, and the allied armies burned the 
city Sardis, which had been the capital of Croesus, 
and was then the residence of the Persian satrap or 
viceroy of Darius. In the end this revolt of the 
Ionian cities accomplished nothing. The insurrec- 
tion was put down with savage force. But the 
wily Hippias did not allow the Great King to 
forget the insulting act of the Athenians in aiding 
the rebels. At length Darius resolved to chastise 
them soundly for their impudent interference. 



Greater Greece — The Classical Age. 45 

The first Persian expedition against Greece was 
under Mardonius (493 B. C.) A large land force 
marched through Thrace, and a fleet of war-ships 
skirted the Thraeian shore. A savage tribe checked 
the progress of the army, and a great storm, sent 
— so thought the Greeks— by their wind -god, 
JEolus, scattered the navy. Mardonius returned 
without so much as setting foot on Grecian soil. 
But Darius was not to be cheated of his vengeance. 
Two years later heralds were sent to all the States 
of Greece, offering pardon for past offenses in re- 
turn for submission to Persia. But no city of im- 
portance accepted the terms. In 490 B. C. a second 
expedition, under Datis and Artaphernes, and ac- 
companied by the detestable Hippias, crossed the 
sea with 110,000 men, in 600 transports and as 
many war-vessels. They landed on the island of 
Eubcea, stormed the offending city of Eretria, 
burned its buildings, and sent its inhabitants to 
Asia as slaves. Athens saw what she must expect 
in case of defeat, and made her preparations with 
wonderful energy. She summoned the other 
Greek States to her aid, but they all with one con- 
sent bewail to make excuse. Platsea alone stood 
by the defender of Greek liberty, sending her lit- 
tle battalion of 1,000 men to re-enforce the 10,000 
who were all that Athens could muster. The al- 
lies left the city and marched, twenty-two miles, 
to the plain of Marathon, on the eastern coast of 
Attica, where the Persians, following the advice 
of Hippias, had pitched their camp. Here the 



S 



46 Outline History of Greece, 

battle was fought on the 12th of September, 
490 B. C. The little band of freemen, led by the 
Athenian Miltiades, attacked the Persian merce- 
naries with such fierceness as to drive them from 
the plain with great slaughter. The remnant of 
the Persians sought refuge in their ships, and 
sailed for Athens, to sack the city in the absence 
of its guards. But the victor did not rest upon 
his laurels. Miltiades hurried his men back to the 
city which their valor had preserved, and the Per- 
sians, finding their plan a failure, abandoned the 
attempt, and sailed for home. Thus ended the 
second expedition, which made Marathon and 
Miltiades immortal. Hippias, discomfited and 
despairing, died on the homeward voyage. 

Ten years passed before Greeks and Persians 
clinched for the death struggle. Darius needed 
no Hippias now to incite him against the once de- 
spised Athenians. He burned to wipe out the 
disgrace which the Persian arms had suffered at 
Marathon, and, dying before his plans were exe- 
cuted, he charged his son, King Xerxes, to know 
no rest until Athens should be destroyed. 

At Athens, too, it w T as recognized that the first 
two expeditions were only the forerunners of a 
more deadly struggle. They believed that noth- 
ing but the direct aid of the gods had saved their 
beloved city. But there were men among them 
who were not paralyzed by the fearful prospect 
of a renewal of the strife. Aristides, "the Just," 
and Themistocles stand head and shoulders above 



Greater Greece — The Classical Age. 47 

their countrymen at this time. They were polit- 
ical rivals, and the Athenians, deeming their riv- 
alry a danger to the state, ostracized Aristides 
(483 B. C). Themistocles now ruled unopposed. 
He made terms with the Oracle at Delphi, and 
thus backed his own influence with the infallible 
utterances of the god Apollo. He reformed the 
administration of the navy in particular, and 
secured a popular decree that twenty war-ships 
should be built every year from the profits of the 
state silver mines at Laurium. The events which 
followed proved the keenness of his foresight. 

In the spring of 480 B. C, the greatest army f 
that ever moved on this earth marched northward 
from Sard is to carry out the last commands of Da- 
rius. Xerxes himself accompanied the host, which 
no writer of antiquity places at less than one mill- 
ion fighting men. Every thing had been prepared 
for the passage of this vast army. A bridge was 
constructed across the Hellespont (the modern 
Strait of the Dardanelles), and thereby the Asiatic 
hordes crossed into Europe. A fleet of 1,300 war- 
ships followed, coasting the northern ^Egean. 
Magazines of food and forage had been established 
throughout Thrace, so that the army did not lack 
supplies. The promontory of Mount Athos, where 
iEolus had destroyed the ships of Mardonius, was 
avoided by a ship- canal, which made an island of 
the dangerous cape. In early summer the van- 
guard of the host entered Northern Greece by the 
Vale of Tempe, which the Greeks had decided 



48 Outline History of Greece. 

not to guard. The approach of the Persians was 
heralded through Greece, and many cities yielded 
in advance to the power which seemed resistless ; 
but brave, free Athens, warlike Sparta, with some 
of her Peloponnesian allies, loyal little Plataea 
and a few other states, stood firm. Xerxes reached 
Central Greece without opposition, and began to 
think that the road to Athens was smooth and 
easy. But one July morning, when his troops be- 
gan to file through the narrow Pass of Thermop- 
ylae, they found no road at all. On the right rose 
a mountain wall, on the left rippled the deep waters 
of the Malic Gulf ; in front were the Spartans led, 
by Leonidas, their king. For two days the little 
Greek army (8,000 men, among whom were 300 
Spartans) withstood the assaults of the Persian 
hordes, whose captains drove their men with whips 
into the defile of death. At last a traitorous 
Greek in the camp of Xerxes told the king of 
a by-path leading over the mountain to the rear 
of the barrier. By means of this path a band of 
Persians gained the rear of the defenders. The 
battle was now lost; but Leonidas refused to 
fly. Dismissing his soldiers, except the 300 Spar- 
tans and 700 Thespians, who refused to leave him, 
he continued to fight until the last, and died, a 
hero, among his heroic followers.* In later times 
the government of Sparta erected a monument at 

* " Marathon, Salamis, Mycale, Syracuse — the four fairest 
victories the sun looked down upon — have no .giory to com- 
pare with that of the defeat at Thermopylae." — Montaigne, 



Greater Greece — The Classical Age. 49 

the spot where Leonidas fell. It was inscribed 
with the names of the 300, and for several centu- 
ries the traveler might read upon its surface the 
lines of Simonides : 

"Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by, 
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie." 

While Leonidas was holding the Persian land 
forces at bay, the Greek fleet, led by the Spartan 
Eurybiades, was engaged with the Persians off 
Artemisium, a promontory on the northern coast 
of Eubcea. This, too, was a three-days' contest, 
and the Greeks, though not decisively victorious, 
showed that, ship for ship, they were more than a 
match for the foe. The cajDture of the Pass of 
Thermopylae put a new face on affairs. The land 
road to Athens was now unobstructed, and the 
fleet, to save itself and to defend the Pelopon- 
nesus, retreated southward to the Bay of Salamis. 
The Persian army advanced leisurely through 
Central Greece, plundering and burning as it 
went. The allies, under the presidency of Sparta, 
turned a deaf ear to the entreaties of Athens and, 
retreating into the Peloponnesus, proceeded to for- 
tify the Isthmus of Corinth. This left Athens at the 
mercy of Xerxes. Thereupon two voices arose in 
the public assembly. One party urged the people 
to remain in the city, and with the help of the 
gods to defend it a second time against the Persians. 
But Themistocles had a wiser plan, and with con- 
summate skill he elicited from the Delphic Oracle 
4 



iX' 



50 Outline History of Greece. 

the response that the Athenians would find their 
only safety behind " walls of wood." These, ar- 
gued the leader, were none other than the ships 
which the state had for years been preparing 
against just such an emergency. His counsel pre- 
vailed. The people abandoned the city, leaving a 
garrison to hold the Acropolis — the rock fortress 
around which the town was built. The old men, 
women, and children were transferred to the safer 
states of the southern peninsula, and every able- 
bodied citizen was enrolled for the defense of the 
fleet. Even the political exiles were allowed to 
return, and Aristides in the nobility of his soul 
hastened home and exerted all his splendid talents 
in behalf of the citizens who had thrust him out 
from amongst them. 

In earliest autumn the Persian king entered the 
forsaken city. His troops took the Acropolis by 
storm, and leveled its buildings with the ground. 
The city he burned, but the citizens, the objects of 
his wrath, were beyond his reach. While the 
Greek navy lingered at Salamis, covering the 
labors of the army which was fortifying the isth- 
mus of Corinth, the Persian fleet, somewhat 
shattered by mishaps in the unfamiliar waters of the 
Grecian coast, but still double the numbers of its 
enemies, had been concentrating upon the same 
point. Themistocles detected unmistakable signs 
that the Spartan admiral, Eurybiades, who held 
the chief command in the allied fleet, intended to 
shirk the issue of a battle by retreating to the 



Gkeatek Greece — The Classical Age. 51 

southward, as the land forces had already done 
under Spartan direction. He accordingly devised 
a plan for cutting off this retreat, which must be 
fatal to the cause of the northern Greeks. On the 
morning of September 20, 480 B. C, the Greek 
sailors awoke to find the ships of Persia drawn 
up across the mouth of the bay so as to prevent 




ATHENS 

A.ND THE 

Battlk OF Sala^is 



all hope of escape. Themistocles had contrived 
to let the Persians know of Eurybiades's purpose, 
and they had immediately blocked the passage to 
the south. The Greeks must fight or surrender. 
But Eurybiades, though willing to serve the inter- 
ests of his own State at the expense of the allies, 
was not a coward. He gave the signal to advance, 
and in a few minutes Salamis, the most famous 
sea-fight of history, had begun. Before the dark- 
ness of night set in the Greeks had destroyed 200 



52 Outline History of Greece. 

of the Persian vessels, losing but 40 of their own. 
All clay long Xerxes sat on a golden throne, high 
on Mount iEgaleus, whence he might watch the 
contest, the result of which he did not doubt."* 
Toward evening, disgusted with the defeat of his 
navy, he ordered a retreat. His fleet set sail for 
Asia, to guard the bridge across the Hellespont, 
and the king led the greater part of the land 
force homeward by the way they had come. 

Although Xerxes had gone home in a fit of 
rage, he did not withdraw his troops. Mardonius, 
who had once before headed an expedition against 
the Greeks, selected 260,000 of the best men and 
led tliem into winter quarters in Thessaly. The 
Athenians returned to their city and began to re- 
build their ruined homes. Mardonius, impressed 
with the spirit which they had shown, and per- 
haps doubtful of his ability to conquer a State so 
brave, and so persistent in its bravery, offered the 
Athenians peace and independence, which, to their 
lasting glory, they refused. In the spring of 479 
B. C. he again ravaged Attica, and destroyed the 
remnant of Athens, its people retiring to Sal amis 
as before, when they found that Sparta would 
send neither army nor navy to their aid. But in 

* A king sat on the rocky brow- 
That looks o'er sea-born Salamis, 

And ships by thousands lay below, 
And men in nations — all were his. 

He counted them at break of day, 

And when the sun set where were they? — Byron. 



Gkeater Greece — The Classical Age. 53 

midsummer the largest Greek army that had yet 
been gathered was led across the isthmus into 
Central Greece. Pausanias, the Spartan king, 
commanded the whole force, which, with the 
10,000 Athenians under Aristides, numbered 
40,000 men. In September, just one year after 
the sea-fight of Salamis, the battle of Platcea was 
fought Mardonius made the attack, but his 
troops were routed, and he himself was killed. 
With the capture of the Persian camp richer spoil 
than the simple Greeks had ever dreamed of fell 
into their hands. On the same day the Greek 
fleet came up with and destroyed the remnant of 
the Persian ships at Mt/cale, on the shore of Asia 
Minor. The Greeks continued to fiVht the Persians 
for thirty years, but the great war was over. The 
Greeks now became the assailants, and gradually 
won back from the Great Kin^ the islands and 
coast cities of the iEgean, whose rebellion had 
been the prime cause of the war. 

Such is the history of the mighty and successful 
effort with which Greece, the representative of 
law, withstood and beat back the onslaught of 
Persia, the representative of despotism.* Had the 
conflict terminated otherwise, the whole history of 
Europe and America would have been trans- 
formed. This record of splendid achievement is 

* " Stand up, Greeks, dead and gone, 
Who breasted, beat Barbarians, stemmed Persia, rolling on, 
Did the deed and saved the world, since the day was Mara- 
thon." — Robert Browning. 



54 



Outline History of Greece. 



punctuated with the names of Marathon^ Tliw- 
mopylcBy SalamiSy JPlatcea, and Mycale; Miltiades, 
7Yiemistoeles, Aristides, Leon Idas, Eurybiadts, and 
Pausanias. The history of the great deeds of 
the Greeks in this war was written by Herodotus, 
the first Hellenic historian, "the father of his- 
tory." 



f V 






§UfJ 



Athens Leaps — Age of Pericles. 55 



CHAPTER VI. 

FOURTH PERIOD— (Continued.) 

n. ATHENS LEADS — AGE OF PERICLES. 
(47iM,4 B. C S3 years.) 

The war, which in Greece itself closed with the 
battle of Plataea, continued fitfully among the 

islands and coast cities of the ^Egean. As the 
rebellion of the Greek colonies had hastened the 
outbreak of hostilities, so these same communities 
caused its prolongation. They were the frontier 
towns of the Greek world, and were exposed con- 
tinually to the attacks of Persia, whose power was 
by no means destroyed in the annihilation of the 
invading armament. But if the victories of the 
great war had one pre-eminent effect upon the 
Greeks it was this : Hitherto they had acknowl- 
edged, in a general way, that they were held 
together by certain ties of common ancestry, lan- 
guage, and religion. Xow the shock of battle had 
pressed them into greater intimacy, and for a 
time, at least, they felt a really national pride in 
the deeds which Greeks had performed against 
u barbarians." As a result of this renewed race 
feeling, the distant colonies appeared to the mother 
country in a new relation. The Greeks of Asia 
appealed to their triumphant kindred in Europe 



56 Outline History of Greece. 

for protection from the oppressions of the Per- 
sians ; and this appeal, which a generation before 
would have been disregarded, was granted. For 
several years after the events recorded in the pre- 
vious chapter a fleet, composed of ships from the 
Greek States, cruised in the iEgean, freeing cities 
and islands from the Persian tribute-takers, and 
putting Hellenic garrisons in the strongholds which 
were deserted by the retreating troops of the 
Great King. 

Sparta was still the leader of the Peloponnesian 
League, as she had been for years, and the allied 
fleet was under her direction, although the larger 
number of the ships were built and manned by 
Athenians. The Athenian commanders, however, 
were abler men than the admirals wh^m Sparta 
set over them, and by their influence Athens dis- 
placed her rival in maritime affairs. Sparta was 
at a disadvantage in sea-fighting, and was not re- 
luctant to resign to Athens the task of defending 
the JEgean, little thinking what power this would 
put into the hands of the rival State. 

After the withdrawal of Sparta the islands and 
Ionian cities of Asia Minor formed a confederacy 
to prosecute the war. Athens, as the most power- 
ful member, was the political head of the league, 
but the center of the organization was at the island 
of Delos. Here was the treasury of the allies, and 
hence the name — the Confederacy of Delos. At 
first the individual States were held together by 
the slightest bonds. They remained self -govern- 



Athens Leads — Age of Pericles. 57 

ing communities, observing certain general rules 
for their common safety in time of war. A coun- 
cil, or " synod," of delegates met at Delos from 
time to time to enact and revise these rules, and to 
punish those who infringed them. The offensive 
and defensive weapon of the league was the navy. 
Each State contributed a certain number of ships 
and men to the fleet, which thus became the most 
powerful on the Mediterranean. 

Though all were nominally equal in the Council 
of Delos, the voice of Athens carried authority, for 
her arm was strongest, and since the days of Mara- 
thon and Salamis her soldiers and sailors were glor- 
ified as the saviours of Greece. The reputation 
which Sparta once held as the only military State 
was now shared with Athens, and a large part of 
the Greek world believed that Athens had borne 
the brunt of the Persian onslaught, and deserved 
the lion's share of the honors. Thus it came about 
that the confederacy, which all had entered on 
terms of equality, gradually became subservient to 
Athens. Her free government enabled the ablest 
men to come to the front. Themistocles was the 
founder of her greatness ; but Aristides, his honest 
rival and successor, and Cimon, the gallant son of 
Miltiades, the hero of Marathon, made the wisest 
use of the fleet which the foresight of Themistocles 
had provided. In order to consolidate her power, 
Athens persuaded the confederacy to adopt a rule 
prescribing that the contributions of the States 
should be made in money instead of men and ves- 



58 Outline History of Greece. 

sels. Thus a great treasure was accumulated at 
Delos to be expended on the fleet. The next 
stroke was to have the treasury of the league re- 
moved to Athens "for greater security." Thus 
the cities of the league were made really tributary 
to Athens, and it was the levies of the league that 
paid for the temples which began to rise on the 
Acropolis. While Athens was thus using the 
money of the allies to aggrandize herself, she did 
not neglect her duties as protectress. The naval 
war against Persia was waged with many inter- 
missions for thirty years, till 450 B. G, when the 
Peace of Kallias was concluded between Athens 
and the Great King. Under this arrangement 
limits were fixed which neither party was allowed 
to pass. The power of Persia in the Greek cities 
was at an end, but the fleet had other business 
besides chasing Persian war galleys. It cruised 
among the Greek islands collecting the league tax, 
and inflicting heavy punishments upon delinquent 
members. 

Thus Athens made herself strong abroad. Nor 
did she forget to guard her hearthstone. The 
Athenian citizens who returned from their brief 
exile after the expulsion of the Persians had glory 
enough, and but little else. The temples which 
had crowned the Acropolis — the u city rock," or 
citadel around the base of which the houses of the 
old town were clustered — had been burned, and 
only ashes remained to show where were once the 
dwellings and shops of a prosperous city. The 



Athens Leads — Age of Pericles. 59 

foreign-born residents, who had been the chief 
supporters of the industries and commerce of the 
city, had sought safety in other localities. To 
recall and reassure this valuable class, and to ren- 
der the city independent of the selfish policy of 
Sparta, who had abandoned her rival to her own 
fate in the late war, means of defense must be 
supplied. The fleet was already strong, thanks to 
Themistocles, and the same statesman was alive to 
the necessity of barriers by land as well as by sea. 
The Athenians followed his advice, and began the 
construction of hisdi stone walls about the re- 
builded city. Sparta, in the name of the allies, 
protested against the innovation, and finally for- 
bade the completion of the w T ork. But Themis- 
tocles w r as not to be cheated of his end, and suc- 
ceeded in delaying the delivery of the mandate 
until the walls were so nearly finished that he 
could bid the Spartan troops defiance. He and 
his successors also superintended the fortification 
of the Piraeus, the town wdiich had grown up on 
the sea-shore a few miles from the city, and which 
served as its port. About 466 B. C. the two places 
were connected by the parallel bastions of stone 
knowm to history as " the Long Walls." 

Besides her island empire, Athens began to 
dream of conquests on the mainland, and for a 
few years it seemed as if the dream might be 
fulfilled and all the Greek States might be united 
by force, if not by choice, under a single govern- 
ment. Attica and Eubcea were hers. Then Me- 



CO Outline History of Greece. 

gara, small in extent but most favorably situated, 
with harbors on the Gulf of Corinth as well as 
on the iEgean, sought the eagerly granted protec- 
tion of Athens. Boeotia was attacked, and one by 
one its towns yielded to the mistress of the seas, 
Locris and Phocis followed, and then (455 B. C.) 
JEgina, " the eyesore of the Piraeus," the rich and 
hostile island which lay at the threshold of the 
Peloponnesus, after a manful resistance, was 
obliged to bow to the same grasping sovereignty- 
This event marks the culmination of Athenian 
power. Her encroachments upon the independ- 
ent States of Greece kindled the burning opposi- 
tion of the Corinthians, and the old hatred of the 
Spartan oligarchy burst out afresh at the triumphs 
of democratic Athens. The firebrands smoldered 
for another decade before they broke out into 
the conflagration in which the last remnant of 
Athenian supremacy was consumed. 

The men w r ho had piloted Athens in safety 
through the perils of the Persian w^ars had now 
passed from the scene, and a new man, Pericles, 
had come upon the stage. He was the leader of 
the democratic party at Athens — the free citizens, 
who composed the majority in the popular assem- 
bly, and who were opposed by the " blue blood " 
Eupatrids, the descendants of the old nobility. 
Pericles made his first appearance before the pub- 
lic about the year 469 B. C. But it was not until 
twenty-five years afterward that he gained that 
complete control of the populace which enabled 



Athens Leads — Age of Pericles. 61 

him to carry out his splendid projects. He was 
not nominally the Archon, or ruler of the city, his 
offices being those of general of the armies and 
superintendent of finances and public works, but 
the voting population were at his beck and call, 
and his will was obeyed as though he were a 
crowned king. He was a statesman, the equal of 
the great Themistocles, and an orator of grace and 
power of persuasion scarcely surpassed by his fel- 
low-countryman of later times, Demosthenes. 
"He was distinguished for his philosophical 
studies, his literary tastes, his majestic eloquence, 
his love and appreciation of art, his elegant man- 
ners, his profound conception of the duties of a 
statesman, and the unbending firmness with which 
he carried his patriotic plans into execution." 
Under his thirty years of enlightened rule Ath- 
ens reached her prime. The age of Pericles was 
the Golden Acre of Greece. Until the Persian wars 
Athens had attracted attention in Greece only as 
the abode of a people who were making novel ex- 
periments in free government. The war had 
thrust them into bold prominence. The Delian 
Confederacy which resulted from the war gave 
Athens commerce, dominion, and abounding 
wealth. Under these conditions this rather ob- 
scure people, who had learned the art of govern- 
ing themselves, suddenly developed wonderful 
talents. The latent energy which had first exhib- 
ited itself in great soldiers now burst forth in an 
overflow of genius. Athens at once became "the 



62 Outline History of Greece. 

school of Hellas" — -the intellectual center of the 
world— and the art and literature of this period 
have influenced subsequent generations to a degree 
surpassed only by the teachings of Jesus Christ. 

The Athens of Pericles was a city of wonders. 
Its harbor, the Piraeus, was crowded with ships 
from every Mediterranean port, and strangers 
from remote lands thronged to the city to listen 
and learn. The Acropolis, the table of rock which 
Xerxes had swept clean of the modest temples 
with which it had been adorned in the days of 
Pisistratus, was fortified anew, and upon its emi- 
nence was erected the Parthenon, the Erechthe- 
um, and the colossal statue of Athene, the guar- 
dian goddess of the city whose busy highways 
stretched at her feet. " Upon this rock art of 
every kind achieved its highest triumphs." The 
ruins which remain declare the glories of sculpt- 
ure and architecture with which these temples were 
embellished. On the southern slope of the Acrop- 
olis the twenty thousand rock-hewn seats of the 
theater of Dionysius told of a new art — the drama 
— which iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the 
tragic poets, and Aristophanes, the comedian, had 
brought to perfection. In the most crowded 
streets, at the busiest corners, and wherever the 
roar of human life was the loudest might be seen 
and heard the philosopher Socrates, and in the 
shaded walks of the Academia Plato, his most 
brilliant disciple, walked and talked with those 
who sought to know the truth. Pericles was 



Athens Leads — Age of Pericles. 63 

" the man who, more than any other, saw what 
the capabilities of his countrymen were, and 
seized the best means of bringing out their good 
qualities." He was never deceived by dreams of 
an inland empire with Athens at its head. With 
clearer vision he saw that the city owed and must 
owe her greatness to the political and commercial 
mastery of the iEgean Sea, and to this end he 
spared no expense in the equipment of the fleet 
which had lately won and now protected this su- 
premacy. This foreign policy was consistent with 
his domestic policy of keeping Athens free and 
independent and educating all her citizens to the 
utmost. " The age of Pericles stands pre-eminent 
as the most brilliant phase in the history of 
mankind. And the genius of this splendid age 
is embodied in Pericles himself." When he died 
there was no one left to take his place, and, 
though the intellectual eminence of Athens was 
maintained for several generations, her political 
institutions crumbled with his death. 



Athens Leads — Peloponnesian War. 65 



CHAPTER VII. 

FOUBTH PEBIOB.— Continued. 

ATHENS LEADS (CONTINUED) PELOPONNESIx^N 

WAR. 

(479-404 B. C. 7-3 years.) 

The very greatness of Athens was the cause 
of her downfall. Her splendor could not dazzle 
the eyes of her allies. They saw that it was the 
treasury of the league which bore the expense of 
temples, theaters, and festivals. They even saw 
their money brought into the theater on feast days 
and distributed to the common people of Athens; 
the sight did not increase their devotion. Sparta, 
after fruitless attacks upon the Athenian power, 
withdrew within the Peloponnesus and prepared 
for a more determined test of strength. The 
struggle began in the year 431 B. C. Athens 
was strong, but Sparta was persistent, and one by 
one the sources of Athenian supplies were shut off. 
More than once Athens recovered her balance and 
bade fair to emerge in safety from the conflict, 
but folly led to disaster, and after twenty-seven 
years of fighting the end came, 404 B. C. Sparta 
was victor, and the Peloponxesian War was 



over. 



The causes of this war were many and complex, 



66 Outline Histoky of Greece. 

but it is needless to follow them in detail. They 
may be summed up in one expression : Dorian 
envy of Ionian prosperity. The contending 
parties were the Athenian Confederacy — the old 
Confederacy of Deios — and the Peloponnesian 
Confederacy, of which Sparta had long been the 
head. Athens had the support of Plataea and 
some of the independent islands, while Locris 
and Boeotia, in Central Greece, sided with the 
states of the Peloponnesus. The two confeder- 
acies had concluded a truce for fifty years in 445 
B. C. But Corinth and Megara chose to consider 
certain acts of Athens as contrary to the treaty. 
They denounced her as faithless before the con- 
gress of the Peloponnesian League. Sparta ap- 
proved the complaint, and war was declared. 
This was in the year 431 B. C. 

Although the Athenians were supreme at sea 
they had no land army able to cope with the 
heavy armed soldiers {lioplltes) of Sparta, the 
most formidable troops of the ancient world. 
The war, therefore, took on a strange form. In- 
stead of meeting in the open field and bringing 
the conflict to a decisive issue, each party followed 
a. plan of its own. The Spartans invaded Attica 
and ravaged the land far and wide, but no army 
opposed their progress. Pericles ordered the coun- 
try folk to seek shelter within the walls of Athens 
and the Piraeus, and allow the Spartans to do 
their worst. At the same time he sent the fleet 
to hapry the coast cities of the Peloponnesus, in 



Athens Leads — Peloponnesian War. 67 

the hope of recalling the invaders to defend their 
own homes. This plan of campaign was followed 
for several years. Five times the Spartans burned 
the crops of the Attic farmers, while the ships of 
Athens swooped down upon the defenseless ports 
of Laconia and Messenia, levying tribute and 
establishing garrisons to vex the surrounding 
country. 

At the close of the first vear of the struggle a 
memorial service was held at Athens in honor of 
the dead who had given their lives for the nation. 
Pericles pronounced the funeral oration. He 
seized this opportunity to arouse his countrymen 
to greater efforts. He drew a contrast between 
the liberties of the Athenian government and the 
rigid rules by which the Spartans lived and fought. 
With wonderful eloquence he depicted the incen- 
tives to a vigorous prosecution of the war. 
Athens was in the right, he said. She had been 
ruthlessly attacked, and in such a conflict the gods 
themselves would fight on her side against the 
Spartans, as they had fought with their Athenian 
fathers against the Persian hordes. By such 
words he animated the people with his own spirit. 
Recognizing the serious nature of the war, they 
laid aside a treasure of 1,000 talents and decreed 
that any citizen proposing to use this money for 
any other purpose than to resist an attack upon 
the Piraeus itself should be punished with death. 

It was with such feelings as these at Athens 
that the second year of the war opened, bringing 



08 Outline History of Greece. 

with it a new foe more deadly than the Spartan 
hoplites. A pestilence such as more than once in 
modern times has swept murderously through the 
harbors of the Mediterranean was in some way 
introduced into the city. The Piraeus, the space 
between the long walls, and Athens itself were 
crowded with refugees from the farms and ham- 
lets of Attica. There was no escape from the 
disease except by invoking the mercy of the 
Spartan king, who was ravaging the districts out- 
side the walls. The heat of a semi-tropical sum- 
mer, and the filth of a population which thronged 
a space too small for it by half, intensified the 
virulence of the contagion. The sufferers died by 
hundreds and thousands. The people lost their 
courage in the presence of this awful visitation. 
They began to wonder if the gods were really 
with them. They began to talk of peace with 
Sparta. They even murmured against Pericles 
for bringing in the country people to destroy the 
health of the city population. But the statesman 
appeared before them, and by the magic of his 
eloquence revived their fainting spirits. This was 
his last public act of which we have record. In 
429 B. C. Pericles himself succumbed to the 
plague, and died, leaving no one to take his place. 
There were able men after this, but " Pericles had 
worked for the welfare of Athens and for that 
alone ; they who came after him were bent first 
upon securing each the foremost place for himself." 
Nicias and CI eon, both selfish, neither of them 



Athens Leads — Peloponnesian War. 69 

warlike, came to the front in this dearth of states- 
men and distracted the Athenians with their rabid 
rivalry. The army had still an able commander 
in Demosthenes (not the famous orator), who had 
a wonderful opponent in the person of young 
Brasidas the Spartan. In the year 425 B. C. the 
Athenian troops fortified the post of Pylus, on 
the coast of Messenia, in Spartan territory. By 
strategy a body of Spartans was shut up on the 
little island of Sphacteria, which lay near the coast 
at this point, beleaguered by the Athenian forces. 
The siesre dragged on for months, and the indolent 
and cautious Nicias, who was in command of the 
Athenian fleet, could not force the Spartans to sur- 
render. It was even feared that they might escape, 
and Nicias went to Athens in person to explain 
the hopelessness of the situation. Cleon, his op- 
ponent, derided him for his incapacity, and though 
himself no soldier, recklessly accepted the com- 
mission v hich Nicias laid down. lie left the city, 
promising to capture the island within twenty 
days. Putting the full command in the hands of 
the skillful Demosthenes, he succeeded. The 
Spartans of noble blood, 120 in number, were 
taken alive within the twenty days and brought 
back to Athens amid loud acclaims. Cleon w T as 
the hero of the hour. Besides this stronghold in 
the west the Athenian fleet seized the island of 
Cythera, lying south of the Peloponnesus and 
forming a valuable station for intercepting the 
fleets which the allies of Sparta were gathering 



70 Outline History of Greece. 

to her succor. With these and other posts upon 
the borders of the peninsula Athens might hope 
to bring the Spartans to terms. Hope revived at 
the prospect. But Brasidas, the Spartan, was wise 
enough to see that the only way to shake off this 
strangling grasp of Athens was to attack her in 
her maritime empire. It profited little for Sparta 
to lay waste the Attic vineyards while every vine- 
clad isle of the iEgean and the rich corn-lands of 
Thrace and Asia Minor were sending shipload 
after shipload of supplies to the Piraeus under the 
strong convoy of Athenian galleys ; but, if the 
city could be stripped of her foreign possessions, 
her downfall was inevitable. Gathering an army 
from Sparta and the allies, Brasidas hurried north- 
ward, not to repeat the futile invasions of Attica 
— for the 120 noble Spartans who were held as hos- 
tages within the clutch of Athens must have 
fallen a sacrifice to such an attempt — but to win 
away from Athens the rich colonies which dotted 
the shores of Thrace. Athens — content with her 
successes and no longer led by a patriot states- 
man — alio wed him to make his journey unmolested. 
For two whole years he worked with wily tongue 
and keen sword among the towns of the north, 
detaching them one by one from their old allegi- 
ance, and Athens made not one vigorous effort in 
their defense. At last the incompetent Cleon was 
sent at the head of an expedition to undo the in- 
sidious work of the Spartan. At this time De- 
mosthenes was busy elsewhere, and Cleon's poorly 



Athens Leads — Pelopoxnesiax War. 71 

generated army was annihilated at Amphipolis, 

422 B. G. He perished, and the p indent Brasidas 
with him. But the latter had done his work. 

Nicias had no desire to continue the war, and 
the Spartans were glad to come off as well as they 
did. Accordingly, in 421 B. C, the Peace of 
Nicias was concluded between the two confeder- 
acies. It was to last for fifty years, and both 
leagues were to restore conquests and exchange 
prisoners. 

In the brief interval between the cessation and 
renewal of hostilities the name of Alcibiades — 
a name linked forever with the downfall of Ath- 
ens — comes into glaring prominence. The histo- 
rian Cox says of him : " To the possession of vast 
wealth this man added a readiness of wit, a fertil- 
ity of invention, a power of complaisance, which 
invested his manner, when he wished to please, 
with a singular charm. He was utterly selfish 
and unscrupulous ; and, if we are to believe the 
stories told of him, his youthful career was one of 
gilded sensuality and of barbarous ruffianism, 
hidden under a veil of superficial refinement." 
His splendid talents and his power to please 
gave him an influence in the popular assembly 
which surpassed that of the unenterprising and 
self-satisfied Nicias; and to satisfy his personal 
ambition he draped the city headlong to its ruin. 

The poison which finally destroyed all Greek 
attempts at union was working in the Pelo- 
ponnesian League. Every state was jealous of the 



72 Outline History of Greece. 

preponderance of Sparta, and wished to keep her 
power within bounds. Seceders from her confed- 
eracy, Argos and others, formed a new league, 
and Alcibiades, now in the early years of his influ- 
ence in the city politics, and hating Sparta for per- 
sonal slights, induced Athens to join this Argive 
League. Sparta saw the evil in time, and crushed 
it at the outset in the battle of Mantinea, 418 B. C. 
This plan failing, Alcibiades interested the city 
in another project of wild imprudence, and most 
fatal consequences — the Sicilian expedition 
(415-413 B. C). 

Sicily, the great island which lies to the south 
of Italy, had been settled by Greeks in very early 
times. The colonies there had flourished, and the 
Greek kings of Syracuse were strong enough to 
resist the great armaments which the Carthaginians 
sent from Northern Africa to conquer the island. 
On the very day when the eastern Greeks were re- 
pelling the Persian at Marathon their Sicilian kin- 
dred overcame an invading army of Carthaginians, 
and crippled their power for two centuries. The 
Greek cities of the island were now following the 
instinct of their race, and quarreling among them- 
selves. One colony (Egesta) sought the aid of 
Athens against Selinusand Syracuse, arguing that 
the latter Doric cities, if not curbed by the Io- 
nians, would join the Spartan league against the 
lonians, who looked to Athens as their natural 
protector. P3y the advice of Alcibiades the re- 
quest was granted, and, although Athens was mo- 



Athens Leads — Pelopoxnesian War. 73 

mentarily threatened at home with the outbreak 
of the old troubles with the Pelopoimesian States 
(which had never carried out the terms of the 
Peace of Nicias), and although her only defense 
lay in the strength of the fleet with which she 
maintained the supremacy of the seas, yet the 
populace were so infatuated that they sent a fleet 
of 134 triremes, with 3.6,00-0 soldiers and sailors 
under Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus, on the 
long and insane voyage. Just before the sailing 
of the fleet a band of midnight marauders com- 
mitted a grievous sacrilege at Athens. A bust of 
the god Hermes stood before every public build- 
ing, and one morning the people aw^oke to find all 
these Ilermce chipped and broken by some myste- 
rious infidels. The wild life of Alcibiades directed 
suspicion toward him, but he was allowed to depart 
w r ith the expedition, in which the highest hopes of 
the city were bound up. When the armament 
reached Sicily, a message came from Athens order- 
ing his arrest, but he eluded the officers, and fled 
to Sparta for protection. Here he embarked anew 
upon a career of mischief-making. 

The Sicilian expedition was already working out 
its destiny. After a few r successes the army of 
Nicias settled down to besiege Syracuse. They 
suffered from sickness and lack of necessary food. 
Athens made another suicidal effort to complete 
the success of the undertaking, sending Demos- 
thenes with 73 triremes and 5,000 picked men — 
her very life-blood — to re-enforce Nieias. In two 



74 Outline History of Greece. 

naval battles the combined fleets were destroyed. 
Tlu heroic Syracusans burst through the ring of 
Athenians which had encircled them for two years, 
and broke it in pieces. The shattered army at- 
tempted a retreat, but its ships were gone, and, 
after struggling inland for live days, its wretched 
remnant fell into the hands of the Syracusans, who 
executed the leaders, the easy Nicias and the brave 
Demosthenes, and sent the 7,000 prisoners to labor 
and die in the quarries of Epipolae, five hundred 
miles from home. The sufferings of these con- 
demned prisoners form the most piteous episode in 
Grecian history. Thus ended the Athenian expe- 
dition against Syracuse. From it Athens had confi- 
dently hoped to win a new empire to replace that 
which Sparta had begun to wrest from her. To it 
she had sacrificed the flower of her sons, and the 
choicest of her ships. Its utter failure left her a 
cripple, with the traitor Alcibiades plotting against 
her in the council-chamber of her foes. 

Alcibiades persuaded Sparta to take advantage 
of the weakness of Athens by invading Attica and 
establishing a permanent garrison in the neighbor- 
hood of Athens. Accordingly, the Spartans took 
post at Decelea, whence they made forays upon 
the Attic farmers, and kept the city in a state of 
continual fear. From Sparta Alcibiades extended 
his malignant influence to the iEgean islands, per- 
suading four of them that the time w r as ripe for 
breaking away from the oppressive yoke of Ath- 
ens. A Peloponnesian fleet accompanied him to 



Athens Leads — Peloponnesian War. To 

add force to his arguments, but the Spartans sus- 
pected that the traitor was untrue to them, and he 
fled to the court of Tissaphernes, the Persian vice- 
roy of the neighboring part of Asia Minor. The 
succession of disasters which had fallen upon 
Athens discredited the democratic government 
of the city, and a revolution broke out in 411 which 
put an oligarchy in the place of the republic. The 
new government tried to make peace with Sparta, 
but the army and fleet which had been sent to the 
iEgean to protect the islands refused to obey the 
new orders, and invited Alcibiades to be their com- 
mander. He accepted, and, at their head, defeated 
the Peloponnesians in three pitched battles. In 
408 B. C. he returned to Athens as a hero. The 
sentence w T hich had been passed against him for 
sacrilege was repealed, and the people (who had 
overthrown the oligarchy after a few months) 
gave the double traitor the supreme control of 
the forces by land and sea. A single defeat was 
enough to turn the fickle populace against him, 
and (407 B. C.) to send him into the exile in which 
he died. 

The strength of Athens was now nearly ex- 
hausted. Scanty tribute came from the islands, 
and a Peloponnesian fleet, larger than any she 
could launch, was continuing the work, so well 
begun by Brasidas, of stopping the fountains of 
Athenian prosperity. With a supreme effort 
the Athenian fleet beat the Peloponnesians at 
Arginusre, in 406. But in 405, Lysander, the 



76 Outline History of Greece. 

Spartan admiral, destroyed the last vestige of the 
Athenian navy at iEgospotami. Lysander block- 
aded the Piraeus, and starved Athens into sur- 
render, 404 B. C. The confederates decreed 
that the city must pull down its walls, deliver up 
its ships, receive back its exiles, and henceforth 
follow implicitly the demands of Sparta. The 
miserable Athenians had no further power of re- 
sistance, and submissively accepted the degrad- 
ing terms. So Athens fell. 




Sparta Leads. 17 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FOXJKTH PEBIOD.— Continued. 

III. SPARTA LEADS. 
(401-371 B. C, 33 years.) 

After the destruction of _ the Athenian fleet at 
JSgospotami (405 B. C.) and before the fall of Ath- 
ens, the Spartan admiral, Lysander, cruised among 
the ^Egean islands and gave them new political con- 
stitutions. Under the government of Athens they 
had been left in practical independence. They 
made their own laws, except where such legislation 
conflicted with the enactments of the league, and 
they had an appeal from the injustice of the offi- 
cers of the confederacy to the enlightened popular 
assembly of Athenian citizens. To each of these 
communities Sparta came in the guise of a libera- 
tor, and the " freedom " which she brought was 
copied from that which her own people enjoyed. 
In every city she set up an oligarchy or aristocracy, 
in which political power was limited to a few high- 
born or rich-born citizens, and the remainder of the 
people were left almost as destitute of political 
rights as were the slaves. These oligarchies, more- 
over, were not left to themselves. Commissioners 
from Sparta dwelt in each community, or made 
frequent tours of inspection to see that her com- 



IS Outline History of Greece. 

mands were obeyed. It was a government of this 
nature that Lysander set up at Athens — hitherto 
the champion of free government by and for the 
people. 

The constitution which was prepared for Athens 
transferred the chief power from the citizen as- 
sembly to the hands of a committee known to 
history as the Thirty Tyrants — a name forever 
detestable anions the Athenians. In such a state 
as Athens had been the citizens had not learned 
to be meekly subservient to despots. In order to 
establish their authority over the people, who 
longed for the resurrection of the democracy, the 
Thirty, Critias at their head, attempted to sup- 
press dissatisfaction by blood and banishment. 
Fifteen hundred Athenian patriots perished in 
the proscription, and many others fled the country. 
Thrasybulus, one of the latter, collected about 
him a resolute band of exiled democrats, and by a 
bold stroke seized the Piraeus and prepared to 
storm the city. The Thirty, in alarm, sought the 
aid of Sparta, who interfered to reconcile the two 
factions. Most of the Tyrants were put to death, 
and the old democracy, curtailed in some of its 
powers, was restored (403 B. (1) 

By this system of oligarchies, supervised by 
Spartan commissioners, Lysander gave his State 
greater power in Greece than Athens or any other 
Greek city had ever attained. This period of 
power corrupted the people. The wealth wmieh 
it brought to Sparta was expended upon luxuries 



Sparta Leads. V9 

which undermined the stern disciplinary system 
which had grown up upon the lines laid down by 
Lycurgus in the earliest times. The Spartan 
soldier lost the reputation which for three centu- 
ries had been his, and the State, whose sole means of 
preservation lay in its military prowess, was thus 
doomed to a speedy decay. The rough hand with 
which the Spartans directed the fortunes of the sub- 
ject States aroused hatred among people who had 
long been their allies in the common warfare against 
Athens. Thus in many ways the disintegrating 
spirit which pervaded the Hellenic race was again 
repeating its wretched work. The supremacy of 
Sparta continued for only thirty-three years, 404- 
371 B. C, and was marked by no such outburst of 
genius as had accompanied the political eminence 
of Athens. In the latter citv the extinction of 
liberty had little immediate effect upon the intel- 
lectual activity of the people. " It is the elevation," 
says Fisher, "not of a distinct class of the citizens, 
but of the whole society, which gives Athens its 
unique distinction; " and the fruits of such a course 
of training would not disappear in a change of gov- 
ernment nor in the lapse of two or three genera- 
tions.* The city became "more and more the 
leader in literature, art, and philosophy." 

There is but one dark stain upon the record of 

* "Athens ceased to be a political power, but destroyed she 
was not. On the contrary, the groves of the Lyceum and the 
Academy were the seat of a more glorious empire than the 
fate of arms can bestow or take away." — Lahberton. 



80 Outline History of Greece. 

Athens during this period. Socrates, the greatest 
of her philosophers, and the wisest and purest of 
the ancients, was put to death (399 B. 0.) after a 
public trial on the charge of corrupting the youth 
of the city, and teaching doctrines contrary to 
the belief in the gods of Hellas. 

This is another Persian epoch, not like that in 
which the Greeks stood together to resist the 
hordes of Xerxes, but a time in which the gold of 
the Persian king employed Greek soldiers to serve 
agiinst his foreign enemies, and too often against 
their neighbors and kindred. The Retreat of the 
Ten Thousand is the interesting historical episode 
which grew out of one of these rather discreditable 
mercenary expeditions. Xenophon has told its 
story in the "Anabasis," and we shall tell it only 
briefly here, leaving the reader to find in that 
book the simple and modest narrative which the 
hero has left of the performance of himself and 
his countrymen. The "ten thousand" Greeks 
were hired by Cyrus the Younger from the coast 
cities of Asia Minor for an expedition against 
his elder brother Artaxerxes II., who had 
just succeeded to the throne of Persia. The 
Greeks were prized on account of their superior 
courage and military skill, and Cyrus gave them 
no truthful information of the object of the expe- 
dition. The army, which included 100,000 bar- 
barians besides the Greeks, marched through Asia 
Minor to within a few miles of Babylon, where 
Cyrus was killed in combat with his royal brother. 



Sparta Leads. 



81 



The Greeks stood firm amid the wreck of the ex- 
pedition; but their position after the battle, sur- 
rounded as they were by enemies, and a thousand 
miles from their home, or even from a friendly 
shelter, was almost hopeless. They had no com- 
petent leader until Xenophon, a young Athenian, 
stepped out from the ranks and proffered his advice 




PeTgamus 

ASIA niNos 




IP 

Antiocn ) O * 

o Damascus V 



|Tq jEEUSALBlf 





"BabyloT 



THE RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND IS SHOWN BY THE DOTTED LINE. 

to the chiefs. Under his direction the Greeks 
made their memorable retreat northward through 
an unknown and hostile country. After sur- 
mounting almost incredible hardships, they at last 
came in sight of the Euxine,* and the account of 
the transports of joy with which these stern war- 
riors greeted the sight of the open sea, crying, 

* The Black Sea, on which were many Greek cities, and to 
which the grain ships of the Piraeus came every year. 
6 



82 Outlike History of Greece. 

« Thallatta ! Thallatta P ( ; < The sea ! The sea ! n ) 
is one of the most touching passages in literature. 

The aid which the " ten thousand " had afforded 
to the rebel, Cyrus, was resented by Artaxerxes, 
who, through his viceroy, made war upon the 
coast cities of Asia Minor. Sparta could no 
longer leave the defense of these outlying " patches 
of Hellas " to Athens, for the Athenian fleet, to- 
gether with the supremacy of Greece, had been 
surrendered to the victors in the Peloponnesian 
war. Persia and Sparta were thus brought face 
to face. 

The Persian " satraps " or governors did not in- 
vade Greece with armies, but sent agents with 
heavy purses, whose labors were much more 
effective. Corinth, for a long time the most 
thriving city of the Peloponnesus (for Sparta, 
with all her influence, was neither a rich nor a 
populous city, as Athens had been and as Corinth 
now was), was envious of Sparta, and felt the 
true Hellenic jealousy of Spartan supremacy; and 
Thebes, the Dorian city of Boeotia, in which Sparta 
had always found a willing ally in any undertaking 
against Athens, now turned against her former 
companion-in-arms. Thebes, Corinth, and Argos 
made an alliance so strong that Athens also, huni- 
bled as she was, thought it safe to become a mem- 
ber. The four cities equipped a fleet which, aided 
by the ships and money of the Persian king, was 
very formidable. Conon, the Athenian admiral, 
who had commanded for his citv in the last battles 



Sparta Leads. 83 

of the Peloponnesian war, had the satisfaction of 
defeating the fleet of the Spartan allies in several 
sea-fights, in one of which (395 B. C.) Lysander, 
who had imposed the conditions of surrender at 
the capture of Athens, lost his life. The Spartan 
governors were driven out of the Greek cities of 
Asia Minor, and a number of the old Athenian 
islands returned to their allegiance. Persian 
money rebuilt the walls of Athens which the 
Spartans had razed, and things came to such a 
pass that (387 B. C.) the Spartans were glad to 
sign the inglorious Peace of Antctlcidas, which 
gave to the Persians complete control of the coast 
cities of the iEgean. Athens was allowed to 
retain three islands, and the rest were declared 
independent ; Sparta and Persia jointly promised 
to let them alone and to protect them from the 
invasion of any third party. 

By this treaty the Spartans gave up the whole 
maritime power which they had won from Athens 
twenty years before. They were thus greatly 
weakened, and the jealous States of the Pelopon- 
nesus had not been conciliated by any acts of 
kindness. Even in Central Greece the influence 
of Sparta was still exerted to thwart the wishes 
of the people by setting up city aristocracies in 
place of democracies. Such an action in the 
case of Thebes in Boeotia was the cause of the 
Theban War. A garrison of Spartans was thrown 
into the Cadmea, the citadel of Thebes. Pelop- 
idas, a patriotic Theban, assembled a band of 



84 Outline History of Greece. 

noble spirits, as Thrasybulus had at Athens, 
and liberated his city, entering it by night with 
twelve companions and opening the gates to his 
comrades. After a long siege the Spartan garrison 
capitulated, and was allowed to march out with 
honor (378 B. C.) This was the beginning of 
Theban greatness. Two names are linked with the 
Theban cause in the struggle which followed — 
Pelopidas and Epaminondas. Both are worthy 
to stand in the very first rank of Greek heroes, 
and — excepting the half Hellenic Alexander the 
Great — Epaminondas was the last and perhaps 
the greatest of all the Greek military com- 
manders. Agesilaus, King of Sparta, led the 
Peloponnesians in the long war. Spartan gov- 
ernors (Jiarmosts) ruled all the towns of Boeotia 
except Thebes, and the first act of Pelopidas and 
his friends was to extend the power of their city 
over these neighboring communities. The The- 
bans had never taken a great place in the history of 
Greece. In war, to be sure, they had a reputa- 
tion for stubborn strength and careful discipline 
which resembled that of Pparta, but in intellect 
the Athenians called them stupid, and in states- 
manship their principal care hitherto had been to 
curtail the power of Athens, and to maintain their 
leadership of the few towns in Boeotia. In the 
Persian war they had meekly yielded to Xerxes 
and Mardonius. But under their two last and 
only statesmen they developed a striking national 
spirit, and their military genius became the means 



Sparta Leads. S5 

of lowering the haughtiness of Sparta. A pecul- 
iar feature of the Theban army was the famous 
Sacred Band "composed of three hundred picked 
men, bound together by the closest ties of friend- 
ship, and devoted to each other to the death." 
In this organization stern military drill like that 
of Sparta, and a Spartan love of glory, were ex- 
emplified, and to these was added the higher 
incentive of a brotherly devotion which ever 
prompted to the most heroic sacrifices. 

The expulsion of her garrison from the Cadmea 
aroused Sparta to the necessity of redeeming her 
prestige. Several expeditions were sent into Bceo- 
tia, but the Thebans continued to extend their au- 
thority over the neighboring cities. Athens was 
justly suspected of lending aid, and Sparta sought 
to punish her for this interference by an attack 
upon the Piraeus. This drove Athens into open 
hostility. She joined Thebes in a league of sev- 
enty cities, organized with the specific purpose of 
humbling despotic Sparta. Athens, recovering a 
fragment of her old naval pre-eminence, scattered 
the Spartan fleets in several battles, but becoming 
anxious lest Sparta should sink so low that 
Thebes might mount to power upon her ruins, 
withdrew from the war and made a separate 
peace with the enemy. In 371 B. C. a congress of 
the Peloponnesian States was held, in order, if 
possible, to put an end to the war. Athens and 
Thebes were represented by delegates. It was 
agreed that there should be universal peace, and 



86 Outline History of Greece. 

that each city should sign the treaty separately 
and in its own right; in other words, that the 
existing leagues should be broken up and each 
community should be independent. But when 
the time came for the separate cities to swear to 
maintain the treaty, Sparta took the oath not 
for herself alone, but for all the cities over which 
she ruled, thus denying their independence. 
Thebes followed her example, and refused to sign 
merely for herself unless Sparta, too, would re- 
nounce the right which she claimed to act for the 
subject cities. The Spartan king thereupon de- 
clared that Thebes should be excluded from the 
peace. 

Epaminondas, who had represented Thebes in this 
national congress, returned to his city and aroused 
his countrymen to resist with their lives this base 
attempt of Sparta to enslave them. A Spartan 
army under Cleombrotus advanced into Bceotia, 
and met the troops of Epaminondas near the village 
of Leuctra (371 B. C.) The Thebans were animated 
with feelings akin to those which had inspired 
the Athenians at Marathon. They were fighting 
for life, for freedom, and for their country's 
honor. In this battle Epaminondas, the Theban, 
introduced a new manner of attack. It had been 
the Greek custom to draw up their armies in 
two or three extended ranks, and by one impet- 
uous rush to break through the enemy's line at 
all points. The Theban innovation ,was the 
phalanx, a formation which Philip and Alexander 



Sparta Leads. 



SI 



perfected. Epaminondas massed his soldiers in 
solid columns, with which he hammered and 
shattered the thin opposing line. This device was 
followed in later times by such masters in the art 
of war as Frederick the Great of Prussia, and 
Napoleon the First of France. In the battle of 
Leuctra its efficiency was proved. The Spartan 
army was defeated with great loss. Cleombrotus 
Avas killed, and the harsh laws of Lycurgus 
were suspended to allow the Spartan women to 
mourn their dead. The Thebans were the first 
soldiers who met the Spartan hoplites in pitched 
battle and came off victorious. They broke the 
prestige of Sparta and laid the foundation of 
their own power in the same battle. The battle of 
Leuctra was fought within twenty days after the 
congress in which Sparta had haughtily dealt out 
peace to all the other States, and only war to 
Thebes. That proud act was the death-warrant 
of Spartan domination. Her power in Greece 
ceased with the battle of Leuctra, after thirty- 
three years of troubled existence (404-371 B. C.) 




88 Outline History of Greece. 



CHAPTER IX. 

POUBTH PEKI0D— (Continued.) 

IV. THEBES LEADS. 
(371-361 B. C. 10 years.) 

The duration of the Greek " city supremacies " 
grows less and less as we approach their close. 
For a long time, before the rise of the other cities. 
Sparta had a controlling power in the councils of 
the Greek cantons. For seventy years after the 
Persian wars Athens stood first among the com- 
monwealths, although her existence was more and 
more harassed by the jealousies of her neighbors. 
The period of Spartan leadership, which followed, 
lasted but thirty-three years, and its strength was 
obtained at the expense of peace and happiness. 
The ten years in which the Thebans kept their 
place at the head of the procession of Greek States 
were so troublous that there was hardly one 
month in the one hundred and twenty when 
one or another of the rivals was not in open 
war. 

Yet, while it lasted, the power of Thebes was 
very great. The battle of Leuctra astounded the 
Greeks, who had submitted to the iron domination 
of Sparta. Relying upon Thebes for protection, 
they shook off the Spartan rulers. The governors 



Thebes Leads. 89 

who represented Sparta in the cities of the Pelo- 
ponnesus were one by one driven from their capi- 
tals, and more liberal constitutions were substituted 
for the old oligarchies. Agesilaus used every 
available means of regaining control of these 
cities, but could effect nothing against the mind 
and arm of Epaminondas. Even the Arcadian 
cities, at the very gate of Laconia, revolted, and a 
Theban army came to their aid. The policy of 
Sparta had been to prevent the establishment of 
citadels in the subject countries, which might be 
used to her disadvantage in case of war, as the 
walls of Athens had been. But Thebes, pursuing 
a different plan, founded fortresses at Megalo- 
polis in Arcadia, and at Messene in Messenia, in 
order to hold in check the Spartan power. Ar- 
cadia and Messenia were freed from the dominion 
which they had borne since the earliest days of 
Spartan conquest. The Theban army forced its 
way into Laconia (370 B. C), and the Spartans, 
who had boasted that their women had never seen 
the smoke of an enemy's camp-fire, had to look 
upon the banners and plumes of a victorious enemy. 
Athens again threw her influence into the scale to 
save Sparta from the depths of humiliation, and 
the Thebans retired, after surrounding Sparta 
with a rins; of watchful enemies. These inva- 
sions of the Peloponnesus were repeated in 369 
B. C. and 367 B. C, and their constant success 
made Thebes dominant over a large portion of 
the peninsula. She was already supreme in most 



90 Outline History of Greece. 

of the States of Central Greece, and was extend- 
ing her influence northward, where Macedonia, 
a State scarcely noticeable hitherto, was now 
emerging into prominence. 

Macedonia included the district which lay north 
of Hellas, as we have considered it, and was 
bounded on the south by Thessaly and an arm of 
the iEgean Sea. Its people were at first reckoned 
by the Greeks as barbarians, but their monarchs 
at least were finally admitted to be of Hellenic 
blood. During the period of Theban supremacy 
in Hellas their affairs became mingled with those 
of the States of Central Greece. As the result 
of several expeditions under the leadership of 
Pelopidas and his colleague, nearly the whole of 
Thessaly became subject to Thebes. Through 
Thessaly Thebes touched Macedonia, and in 
the period of her greatest power compelled the 
regent of the latter kingdom to commit thirty 
hostages to her care, among them Philip, the 
heir to the throne, who dwelt three years (368- 
365 B. C.) in the city of Epaminondas and Pelo- 
pidas, learning lessons in war and politics, which 
he practiced mercilessly against his tutors in the 
after years when he had put on the crown of his 
father. 

The bickerings and jealousies of the Greek 
States were interminable. The Peloponnesus, 
though liberated by Thebes, was not at peace. 
Sparta was using every means to recover her foot- 
hold, and the States which Thebes had clothed 



Thebes Leads. 91 

with independence were endeavoring to fix upon 
their neighbors the shackles which had lately 
bound their own limbs. Epaminondas was obliged 
to make a fourth expedition into this quarrelsome 
country to suppress, if possible, the disorder (364 
B.C.) It was his last undertaking, for he died in the 
moment of victory, as his columns were driving 
the Spartans and Athenians before them on the 
field of Mantinea. One who supported him in his 
dying hours said, "Alas! O, Epaminondas, thou 
diest childless." " No, by Zeus ! " said the expiring 
hero, "for I have two noble daughters, the victo- 
ries of Leuctra and Mantinea." So died the hero 
of Thebes, in July, 362 B. C. He was a warrior of 
the highest genius, a statesman of a purity and 
liberality scarcely surpassed by that of Pericles, 
and his remains as the last name in the long roll 
of Greeks of conspicuous political and military 
fame. His friend and fellow-laborer, Pelopidas, 
had died two years before, winning a battle on 
Thessalian soil. 

Just as the power and influence of Athens had 
crumbled after the death of Pericles, the realm of 
Thebes fell asunder when Epaminondas was no 
more. The power of Thebes was not broken 
down by a long and persistent war like that which 
sapped the vitality of Athens, but from internal 
causes it disintegrated. Instead of a compact union 
it became a cluster of discordant and hostile States, 
each claiming for itself the independence which 
it denied to others. No other Greek common- 



92 



Outline History of Greece. 



wealth had the vitality to rise to a commanding 
position among its fellows, as Athens, Sparta, and 
Thebes had clone in the past, and Greece remained 
in a state of anarchy and divided rule until a 
master of the situation appeared in the person of 
Philip, King of Macedonia. 




Mackdon Leads— Philip's Conquests. 93 



CHAPTER X. 

FOUKTH PERIOD— (Continued.) 

V. MACEDOX LEADS PHILIP'S CONQUESTS. 

(361-146 B. C, 215 years.) 

The years which Prince Philip had spent as a 
hostage at Thebes had a great influence upon his 
career. He was of Greek blood, and his people 
were certainly closely akin to the Hellenes, but 
the Macedonians were far behind the Greeks in 
civilization. The Athenians were wont to de- 
spise them as barbarians, or only half-Hellenes at 
best, and they had none of the intellectual brill- 
iancy which marked the citizens of Athens. But 
the rude Philip saw sights at Thebes which he 
remembered. He knew Epaminondas well, and 
studied his masterly system of war and govern- 
ment until he had it by heart, and was able to 
carry it to greater perfection. Philip's career, 
from his accession to the throne until his death, w^as 
remarkable for its good fortune. The steps by 
Avhich he reached the mastery of Greece were 
many and complicated. He had first to make 
himself strong at home before attempting to sub- 
ject to himself such powers as Athens and 
Thebes, which were formidable even in their de- 
cline. To effect this he bestowed his chief care 



94 Outline History of Greece. 

upon the army. Adopting the principle of 
Epaminondas as the basis of his reforms, he 
brought the Macedonian phalanx to the perfection 
which it maintained unbroken until shattered 
by the shock of the Roman legions. This com- 
pact mass of troops he armed with a new weapon, 
the " sarissa " — a long lance which enabled his 
foot soldiers to meet with advantage the Greek 
hoplites armed with light spears and short swords. 
To perfection of discipline, and to these im- 
provements in equipment, was added an energy 
which the Greek armies had once possessed, but 
which had now disappeared. The Athenians 
cried out in disgust that here was a general who 
did not recognize the rules of war, fighting when 
he could best win, and taking no account of sum- 
mer or winter, heat or cold. 

While bringing his army into shape for his con- 
quests Philip employed it in expeditions against 
the Illyrians and Thracians, his barbarian neigh- 
bors. Being successful here, he turned his arms 
against the Greek cities which studded the coast 
to the south of his dominions. Now was the time 
for Athens, and the other Greek States which re- 
tained a remnant of their former power, to crush 
the upstart; but, with an indifference which is 
only attributable to their belief that a " barbarian" 
nation could have no lasting success against Hel- 
lenic cities, they left the outposts to their fate. 
Moreover, Philip had discounted the chances of 
Athenian interference before attacking her colo- 



Macedon Leads — Philips Conquests. 95 

nies. She who, by reason of her fleet, possessed 
the best facilities for checking his advance, was 
engaged in a trying war with her own revolted de- 
pendencies. This was the " Social War," or war 
of the allies, which was caused by her oppression 
and neglect of the iEgean islands ; these contrib- 
uted to her support, and. now complained bitterly 
that she had nothing to give them in return for 
their annual payments. This revolt was success- 
ful, and was a severe blow to the prosperity of the 
city. 

The year which marked the close of the Social 
War is also the date of the beginning of the " Sa- 
cred War," the opening wedge which at last made 
way for Philip's entrance into Greece. The 
Temple of Delphi, the shrine of the god Apollo 
(the seat, too, of the oracle by which his will was 
made known to the Greeks, and the treasure-house 
which had received the contributions and trophies 
of the Greek States for several centuries), stood 
upon one of the foot-hills of Mount Parnassus, in 
Phocis. Before it stretched the " Sacred Plain," 
which it was unlawful to cultivate. The Phocians 
had occupied a portion of this land for a long 
time with impunity, until the Thebans saw in it a 
chance to deal a blow at their prosperity. It will 
be remembered that the States sent delegates to a 
semi-yearly religious gathering called the "Amphic- 
tyonic Council," and that this council was charged 
with every thing which belonged to the worship 
of the Delphian Apollo. In this meeting the 



96 Outline History of Greece. 

Thebans were now supreme, and their influence 
secured the decree that the Phocians were guilty 
of sacrilege, and must not only abandon their ill- 
gotten fields, but pay a large fine to atone for 
their sin. The Phocians opposed the verdict, and 
threw a garrison into the very temple of the god 
himself. With the rich treasure which they found 
in its coffers they hired an army and beat off the 
attacks of the Thebans and their allies, who were 
aghast at the new blasphemy, and had leagued 
together to chastise their presumptuous neigh- 
bors. Thessaly joined this league against Phocis. 
and the Phocian general, Onomarchus, marched 
northward to invade that country. The Thessa- 
lians appealed to their strongest neighbor for 
aid against the Greek invader. That neighbor 
was Philip of Macedon, who was thus implicated 
in the war against the sacrilegious Phocians. 
Philip eagerly lent his aid, and, marching south- 
ward, conquered Thessaly and reached the Pass 
of Thermopylae. Here he was met by an army of 
Athenians, who, aroused at last to a sense of their 
own danger, joined the wicked Phocians in time 
to shut the invader out of Central Greece, 352 
B. C. 

During the five years which followed Athens 
was the center of a memorable agitation. Her 
subject cities on the Thracian coast, valuable al- 
lies in a contest with a Macedonian power, were 
falling surely into the hands of Philip. His 
agents were in every city of Greece, and by 



Macedon Leads — Philip's Conquests. 97 

bribery and falsehood the influence of Macedon 
was growing yearly more formidable. One man 
at Athens seemed to grasp the situation with a 
clearness of perception and a tenacity of purpose 
which make him an historic figure apart from his 
splendid talents as a public speaker. This was 
the orator Demosthenes, who labored incessantly 
from 352 B. C. until the end to impress upon the 
rulers and people of Athens the dangers which 
must spring from allowing the power of Macedon 
to extend among the States of Greece. The 
Athenians were divided in their own minds. 
Orators of scarcely less ability than Demosthenes 
were in the pay of Philip, and earned their bribes 
by zealous devotion to the enemy of their country. 
For a few years .the Athenians carried on a half- 
hearted war with Macedon, and, after it was too 
late, undertook to succor the threatened colony 
of Olynthus, a powerful Greek city on the north- 
ern shore of the iEgean. With timely assistance 
this town might have checked the rise of the 
Macedonian power, but Athens was not equal to 
the emergency ; Philip reaped all the advantages 
of the conflict, and, sacking Olynthus, subjected 
its inhabitants to truly barbarian cruelties. 

In 3-17 B. C. the Thebans were so reckless as to 
influence the Amphictyonic Council to invite 
Philip into Greece as the champion of Apollo 
against the Phocians, who still kept their hold 
upon the stolen treasures of the God. The Athe- 
nians were tricked into deserting their Phocian 



98 Outline History of Greece. 

allies, and the latter had nothing to do but yield. 
In 346 B. C. the Pass of Thermopylae was aban- 
doned, and Philip was allowed to lay his hand upon 
the "Key of Greece." Marching his troops through 
the famous gateway, he left behind him a perma- 
nent garrison to secure the door at all times for his 
exit or entrance. He advanced into Phocis, and 
executed faithfully the pious decree of the Am- 
phictyons. The Phocians were scattered abroad 
in little hamlets, and compelled to pay burdening 
taxes into the treasury of the plundered god. 

Philip followed up his success by a series of 
blows at the islands and cities upon which Athens 
depended for her corn supply. The national party 
again came to the front in the city, and declared 
war against the king (340 B. C.) % Before hostili- 
ties had begun in earnest another breach of the 
Delphian rules had caused another " Sacred War," 
and this time the Amphictyons empowered Philip 
— who had been given a seat among them since 
the dispersion of the Phocians — to punish the 
offending party. Philip took advantage of this 
authority to seize the Pass of Elatea, which, after 
Thermopylae (already a Macedonian stronghold), 
commanded the road to Thebes and Athens. The 
people of these two cities were spurred by their 
common peril to an activity which had been foreign 
to their movements for a generation. Straining 
every muscle, they put an army into the field to 
oppose Philip, now that he was at their doors. 
Had they made one half the exertion ten years 



Macedon Leads — Philip's Conquests. 99 

earlier they might have been victorious. But they 
were now too late. Philip had waited until they 
were weakened by the loss of allies, and until he 
had been so long in the country that he ceased to 
be regarded as the common foe of all. He now 
even appeared as the chosen champion of their 
religion, and as such had the sympathy of those 
Greeks whose homes in the Peloponnesus were so 
remote that they did not yet detect the despot 
under the armor of a defender of the faith. 
The battle which was to rivet the chains of Philip 
upon the Greek States was fought at Chseronea, 
in BoeotrM, in August, 338 B. C. Philip was with 
his army in person, and his son, Alexander, a 
youth of eighteen years, commanded the wing of 
the army which was charged with meeting the 
onset of the Theban Sacred Band. For a time the 
Greek allies held their own against the foreigners, 
and were even deluded into the hope of victory ; 
but Alexander, pounding resistlessly against the 
devoted Thebans, at length crushed their famous 
troop, and dashed to the aid of his father's hard- 
pressed battalions. The Athenians went down 
before his impetuous charge, and the day was lost. 
Philip was victor over the last obstacle, and Greece 
was subject to the Greek king of a foreign nation. 
To Athens easy terms of peace were granted, but 
Thebes was treated with extreme severity. 

At a congress of delegates from all the States 
except Sparta, which held aloof in the fastnesses 
of the Peloponnesus, the Greeks put the seal upon 



100 Outline History of Greece. 

their defeat in battle by giving to Philip the 
formal leadership of the Greek armies in the war 
which he promised to wage in the name of the 
Greeks against the King of Persia. He offered 
himself as a Hellenic champion rather than as a 
conqueror, and in this character promised to lead 
"his countrymen" upon a grand expedition to 
liberate the Greek cities of Asia Minor, and to 
punish the Great King for the invasion of Greece 
one hundred and fifty years before. It is not 
likely that many of the Greeks believed the profes- 
sions of brotherhood with which Philip sugared 
the bitterness of his autocratic rule, but the terror 
of his name and the glitter of his gold shut the 
mouths of any who might have spoken against 
him. The preparations for the expedition were 
at their height when the dagger of an assassin, 
Pausanias, 336 B. C, put an end to the life of the 
king. 

King Philip is one of the most conspicuous figures 
in the world's history. The surpassing magnitude 
of his son's exploits dwarfs the wonderful career of 
the father by comparison; but it should be remem- 
bered that Philip inherited a weak and despised 
kingdom, with no influence outside of a narrow 
inland region of a half barbarous land, and after 
twenty-three years of hard work left to his son an 
inheritance which included the whole of Greece, 
and with plans for further conquest already matured 
for execution. The man whose energy and ambi- 
tion wrought these changes was a born king of 



Macedox Leads — Philip's Conquests. 101 

men. Says Curteis,* concluding a brief but mas- 
terly notice of Philip: "His good fortune was 
proverbial, it is true ; but, as Demosthenes reminds 
us, the proverb which he best exemplified was that 
which says that the gods help those who help 
themselves. It was notorious that he freely used 
bribery and corruption as a means to an end, and 
was as reckless in swearing as in breaking his 
oaths. On occasion, also, the barbarian in him 
would break through the crust of Greek civiliza- 
tion, and lead him to brutal intemperance and 
savagery. Yet he was a marvelous man. He had 
a force of brain sufficient to gauge the possibilities 
of the world in which he was thrown ; force of 
will sufficient to command success. It is not every 
king who is at once the boldest rider and swimmer, 
the best educated man of the world, the most ver- 
satile diplomatist, and the greatest military organ- 
izer of his time and country. Philip was all of 
these, and by this untiring energy on every side 
of life he overbore opposition, and commanded 
admiration and devotion, if not affection and re- 
spect." It was such a man who laid the founda- 
tions of Macedonian greatness deep and firm for 
the structure which his wonderful son should 

raise. 

* The Macedonian Empire. 




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Macedon Leads — Alexander. 103 



CHAPTER XL 

FOURTH PERIOD— (Continued.) 

MACEDON LEADS (CONTINUED) ALEXANDER AND 

HIS SUCCESSORS. 
(336-146 B. C.) 

Alexander of Macedon was twenty years of 
age when Lis father's death (336 B. C.) raised him 
to the throne of his native country. The youth 
had already proved his fitness for a crown. His 
education had been under the supervision of Greek 
teachers, and his best known tutor, the Greek 
philosopher Aristotle, was one of the most ver- 
satile and able men of the age. The prince was 
fond of literature, of art, and of music ; but 
these accomplishments did not unfit him for the 
sterner business of his father. He excelled all 
the young men of the court in agility, strength, 
and daring, and won the praise of King Philip 
himself — the best rider in the nation — by his 
mastery of the untamed steed Bucephalus. " He 
was," says Curteis, "as a young man, superior to 
his father both in character and abilities, frank, 
passionate, ambitious, yet singularly self-re- 
strained." 

Alexander immediately assured his position as 
king by destroying those who might deny or con- 



104 Outline History of Greece. 

test his right to the throne. He then declared 
his intention of executing Philip's plans for invad- 
ing Persia. But as it would be folly for him to 
march away to the far East with his picked troops 
and leave his kingdom threatened in the rear, he 
made a solemn progress through the Greek States. 
As the head of an army of 30,000 men he was re- 
spectfully received, and the Amphictyonic Council, 
which had betrayed Greece into the hands of the 
father, now, in the name of Apollo, called the son 
to be commander-in-chief of all the Greek armies. 
Philip had been accepted as a national leader by 
the congress of the Greek States at Corinth, and 
the same body now reassembled (336 B. C.) to 
confer equal authority upon Alexander. The 
Spartans alone remained outside the league. 
Alexander generously announced that the Greek 
States would remain independent of each other, 
and subject to him only as their general. After 
receiving tokens of submission from their repre- 
sentatives, he turned northward and disappeared 
from the eyes of Greeks and Macedonians alike. 
He had led his army beyond the Danube upon an 
expedition against the Thracian and the Illyrian 
barbarians, who were the near and dangerous 
neighbors of his paternal kingdom. For five 
months he was utterly lost to the civilized world. 
The Greeks heard and willingly believed the cur- 
rent rumors that he had been killed in combat 
with these wild tribes. The spirit of revolt 
sprang up afresh in Thebes, still smarting from 



Macedon Leads — Alexander. loo 

the punishment which Philip had inflicted upon 
her for resistance to his usurpation ; but scarcely 
had the rebellion broken out when Alexander re- 
appeared, flushed with wonderful northern vic- 
tories, and by hurried marches entered Bceotia. 
He offered the Thebans pardon if they would 
immediately lay down their arms, but they refused, 
and he stamped out the insurrection with a 
severity which was meant to teach the Greek 
cities the danger of forsaking their allegiance to 
so august a sovereign. Thirty thousand of the 
Thebans were sold as slaves, and all the buildings 
of the city were leveled with the ground (335 
B. C), with the single exception of the house of 
the poet Pindar, in whose odes the king took great 
delight. 

Having conquered the Thracians and terrorized 
the Greeks, Alexander set out upon his expedition 
to chastise the Persian king, Darius III. He left 
behind him in Greece a force of 12,000 men to 
keep the Hellenes faithful during his absence, and 
took up his march through Thrace with a Mace- 
donian armv of 40,000 men. A fleet of 175 Greek 
vessels met him on the opposite side of the 
zEgean, and co-operated with him against the 
coast cities. The army crossed the Hellespont at 
Abydos (334 B. C), where Xerxes had stretched 
his bridge of boats when he invaded Hellas* one 
hundred and fifty years before. Here the king 
left the army, and went on a pilgrimage to pay 
his respects at the tomb of the Homeric hero 



106 Outline History of Greece. 

Achilles, on the site of ancient Troy. Returning 
to his army he found the generals of the Persian 
king prepared to dispute his passage of the river 
Granicus. It had been the advice of Meranon, 
the wisest of the Persian generals, to defer all 
opposition until the invading army had penetrated 
far into Asia, and then to surround and crush his 
forces in some spot chosen for its fitness for such 
a battle ; but other councils prevailed, and it was 
decided to check at once the Macedonian advance. 
The Persian troops in Asia Minor did not exceed 
those of Alexander in numbers, and were far 
below them in equipment, training, and confi- 
dence in their leader. In person young Alexander 
led his men into the Granicus, and drove the Per- 
sians in confusion from the opposite bank. This 
rout (334 B. C.) showed the folly of the Persian 
plan of campaign. The only army which they had 
in that part of Asia was annihilated at the very 
beginning, leaving the eastward road entirely un- 
obstructed. There were, indeed, Persian garrisons 
in the Greek coast cities, but most of them yielded 
to Alexander without the formality of a siege. 
He passed along the ^Egean shore to the south- 
western angle of Asia Minor, winning over city 
after city, and then turned northward again into 
the interior. At Gordium he cut the famous 
Gordian knot.* 

* "In the citadel of this town (so runs the tale) was a wagon 
in which once upon a time, when the people were at strife, a 
certain Midas with bis father and mother had entered the 



Macedon Leads — Alexander. 107 

Ao;ain turning to the south-east the invaders 
reached the pass called the Cilician Gates, where 
the road from the interior led down to the coast. 
Here was a narrow defile where scarcely four 
soldiers might walk abreast. It was at this place 
that Memnon had advised the Persians to check 
Alexander's progress, but his wise words had been 
disregarded, as we have seen, and the few soldiers 
who now held the pass fled precipitately at the 
approach of the Macedonians. Passing through 
the gates and turning the north-eastern corner of 
the Mediterranean, Alexander met Darius II., 
King of Persia, who had at last collected a vast 
army to block the way at Issus (333 B. C.) The 
spot chosen for the battle was a plain scarcely two 
miles in width and lying between the mountains 
and the sea. In its narrow limits there was no 
room for the maneuvers of the half million men 
of the barbarian army ; thus, by his stupidity in 

place. Now it had been revealed to the Gordians that a 
wagon would bring them a king who should allay their strife. 
So they laid hands upon Midas and made him king ; the wagon 
was dedicated in the Acropolis, and the oracle further declared 
that whoever should loose the pole from the yoke should be- 
come Lord of Asia. Now the knot that tied it was of cornel 
bark and had seemingly neither end nor beginning. But for 
the omen's sake, and for the comfort of his friends, it was 
needful for Alexander to do the deed. So he went to the 
citadel and loosed the pole, either by cutting the knot with his 
sword or by pulling out the peg. At any rate, the conditions 
of the oracle were satisfied, and a thunder-storm the following 
night made assurance doubly sure." — A, M. Curteis. 



108 Outline History of Greece. 

choosing the battle-ground, Darius foretold the 
result of the contest. His Grecian mercenaries 
withstood the assaults of the Macedonian phalanx 
with great firmness, but w r ere finally overcome. 
The Persians themselves broke and fled early in 
the day. The battle resulted in the capture of 
the royal camp and the destruction of the best 
defensive army which Persia could collect. Alex- 
ander perceived that the conquest was an assured 
success, and now prepared to subdue one by one 
the several parts of the great empire which, under 
Cyrus and his successors, had comprised almost 
the whole eastern world. With 40,000 men he 
undertook to reduce a land as extensive as the 
whole of Europe. 

The four districts of the Persian Empire were 
the four great river basins of the Nile (Egypt), 
the Euphrates and Tigris (Babylonia), the Ox us 
(Bactria, now Afghanistan and Central Asia), and 
the Indus (India). Alexander's plan was to con- 
quer each in turn. Instead of pursuing the Persians 
to their capital, he therefore continued southward 
toward Egypt, along the coast of Palestine, taking 
Tyre after a siege of nine months (333-332 B. C), 
capturing the Philistine city of Gaza in three 
months' time, and in Jerusalem offering sacrifices 
to Jehovah in the temple of the Jews. The Egyp- 
tians bowed gladly to a conqueror who came to 
relieve them from the hated sovereignty of Persia, 
and his sojourn in the Nile valley was entirely 
peaceful. He founded the city of Alexandria (332 



Macedon Leads — Alexander. 109 

B. C), which was destined to become, in some 
measure, a second Athens, and made a pilgrimage 
westward to worship at the temple of Jupiter 
Amnion, which stood in an oasis of the Libyan 
Desert. After remaining a year in Egypt he again 
took up his march toward Persia, his troops re- 
freshed by their rest in the fruitful valley of the 
Nile, and their courage raised to the highest pitch 
by the memory of the great deeds which they had 
already done under their young leader, whose 
good fortune began to seem god-like rather than 
human. The objective point of the new" under- 
taking was the conquest of the rich lands and 
cities of Asia, where the earliest civilization of the 
world had had its rise. Few Greeks had ever 
penetrated so far, except the envoys whom the 
Greek States had sent to seek the peace or friend- 
ship of the Great King. Xenophon's " Ten Thou- 
sand" had nearly reached Babylon (401 B.C.) when 
the death of Cyrus started them upon their famous 
retreat. Now a Greek king led a triumphant 
Macedonian army into the historic valley of the 
Euphrates and Tigris. 

Darius collected the forces which were left to 
him after the defeat at Issus, and withdrew to 
this portion of his dominions. Adding to them 
from his enormous resources, until he had another 
of those swarming armies with which Eastern con- 
querors were wont to trample out resistance by 
mere superiority of numbers, he gave battle to 
Alexander at Arbela (031 B. C), in the Tigris 



110 Outline History of Greece. 

valley. On this occasion the Persians fought on 
a level plain. They outnumbered their opponents 
six to one (some say twenty to one). They had 
numerous cavalry and a score of elephants. The 
Europeans had only discipline, courage, and the 
perfection of military skill. The battle was no 
holiday affair. There were warlike tribes among 
these Persians — soldiers who yielded to none in 
courage — but the result w^as another decisive vic- 
tory for Alexander. Darius did not retreat this 
time with an orderly remnant of his forces ; he 
lied almost alone for his life. He was no longer 
the monarch of whom the Greeks always spoke as 
"the Great King," and although he lived another 
year Alexander reigned over his empire. " The 
oracle of Gordium had spoken truly, and Alexan- 
der was the Lord of Asia." This was the last of 
Alexander's famous battles. It was no longer 
possible for the Persians to put great armies in 
the field against him, and although the lieuten- 
ants of Darius maintained the war in the prov- 
inces for a while, Arbela was the last important 
battle of that grand series — Granicus, Issus, the 
siege of Tyre, and Arbela — which decided the 
mastery of Persia. Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, 
the wealthy cities of the empire, opened their 
gates to the conqueror and received him with 
almost divine honors. The latter city, which 
had been the Persian capital since the days of the 
first Darius, was ruthlessly plundered and burned 
in revenge for the burning of Athens by Xerxes. 



Macedox Leads — Alexander. Ill 

A few soldiers still remained faithful to Darius, 
and Alexander pursued them until the monarch 
caused his own life to be taken (330 B. C.) to save 
himself from the clutches of a conqueror. The 
rest of Alexander's career was that of an explorer 
as well as warrior. He led his veterans first to 
the shores of the Caspian ; then far to the north- 
east, where he overcame the Bactrians in the 
valley of the Oxus, and married their Princess 
Roxana (328 B. C), and even to Samarcand, in 
modern Bokhara. Thence his route lay southerly 
through modern Afghanistan, where he founded 
the fortress which, now known as Herat, is cov- 
eted by Russia as the " key to British India." 
Through the pass of Cabul he entered the Pun- 
jaub (327 B. C), the region of the five rivers 
which unite to make no the Indus. Here he con- 
quered Porus (326 B. C), an Indian prince; but 
beyond this distant point his soldiers refused to 
follow him. They had been absent from Greece 
for eight years. " Our numbers are thinned," 
their spokesmen said. " We are longing to see 
our wives and children. Let us return, and after- 
ward, if thou wilt, lead other troops, fresher and 
younger than we are, to the Euxine, or to Carthage, 
or wherever thou wilt." Unable to allure his men 
farther by promises of new successes, he decided 
to return. The army took ship and sailed down 
the Indus to the sea. Thence a portion, under 
Nearchus, cruised through the Persian Gulf to the 
mouth of the Euphrates, while Alexander led an 



112 Outline History of Greece. 

army by land through the coast regions of modern 
Beloochistan and Persia to Susa (325 B. C.) 

Alexander had no desire to make Athens or any 
European city the head of the empire which his 
soldiers had overrun. He looked upon his native 
land rather as a province of the new Macedonian 
Empire of which he was the head, and Babylon — 
not Pella — was to be its capital. He adopted the 
dress and manners of the Orientals, married the 
wife of Darius, exacted from his courtiers the 
slavish adulation which was the manner of Eastern 
courts, and even commanded the cities of Greece 
to honor him as a god. He had changed in man- 
ner from the frank and genial character of his 
young manhood, and was wont to drink deeply; 
and under such circumstances he gave way to fits 
of passion in which his best friends and most 
trusted lieutenants incurred suspicion and were 
put to death. These drunken revels hastened his 
death, which occurred at Babylon (323 B. C.) 
when he was on the eve of new undertakings in 
lands as yet unexplored. 

Alexander " the Great " was but thirty-three 
years old when death put an end to his ambitious 
plans, and only twelve years and eight months had 
passed since his father Philip, dying, had put a 
scepter into his ambitions gra<p. No man before 
his time, and no Greek of any time, had such an 
influence upon human affairs. He was the greatest 
conqueror the world ever saw, 

''The dread Napoleon of earth's younger hour; " 



Macedox Leads — Alexander. 113 

and although he did not live long enough to 
consolidate his realm into permanence, he and 
his successors transfused the rich Greek blood 
into the exhausted arteries of the East. " Even 
Greece, which gained no direct benefit from the 
Macedonian Empire, was yet indirectly the gainer 
in the fact that it was her lancrua^e which was 
the medium of communication, her language 
which modified the religion which came back to 
her and to Europe from Asia. It was Alexander 
who planted that language and literature in Asia ; 
and it was to Alexander that the great Christian 
cities of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria 
always looked back in reverence as in some sort 
their founder and benefactor." 

Alexander left no heir capable of seizing and 
defending the throne, and after a frightful contest 
the sovereignty was divided among the warriors 
who had served as his lieutenants.* It is not 
within the province of this book to follow in de- 
tail the history of these fragment kingdoms. It 
is enough to show briefly the course which each 
of the three more important sections followed 
until its final absorption in the Roman Empire. 

The main divisions of Alexander's Empire were 
three: Egypt, Syria, and Macedonia. Egypt 
fell to Ptolemy, one of the wisest of the generals. 

* It is related that when asked on his death bed to whom 
he left his power, he replied, " To the strongest." For twenty- 
years after his death his generals fought among themselves to 
determine how the kingdom should be divided. 
8 



114 Outline History of Greece. 

Under him and his two immediate successors, 
who ruled the Nile cities for one hundred years, 
Egypt began a new career of prosperity. Alex- 
andria became a Greek city, and the liberality of 
her princes and the excellence of her situation 
made her the metropolis of the culture as well 
as of the commerce of the Mediterranean. The 
Pharos, or beacon, which was erected at the har- 
bor mouth, was one of the world's seven wonders, 
and the library and museum which the Ptolemies 
founded were rallying points for a throng of 
Greek scholars who collected here the writings of 
Greek authors of the better times for classifica- 
tion and study. Here lived Euclid, the mathema- 
tician, whose geometry is the geometry of the 
present century, and with him were many noted 
Greeks who made the Alexandrian library a 
center of learning. Here it was, too, that the 
Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek to 
facilitate their use in the Greek world. (This 
is the well-known Septuagint Version.) After 
the first three rulers, this family, the Ptolemies, 
declined in ability until Cleopatra, a weak de- 
scendant of Alexander's general, surrendered 
Egypt to the Romans (30 B. C). 

In the Syrian kingdom, which was by far the 
most extensive, the city of Antioch, founded by 
Seleucus, became a center of wealth and Greek in- 
fluence but little inferior to Alexandria. After 
extending to the river Ganges, in India, the do- 
minions of this family were slowly narrowed 



Macedon Leads — Alexander. 115 

until they included only Palestine. This became 
tributary to Rome about 63 B. C. 

But it is with Macedon that we have most to 
do, for Greece was annexed to that kingdom 
in the division of Alexander's empire. While 
Alexander was absent the dread of his vengeance 
and the strength of his garrisons had kept all the 
Greek States tranquil except stubborn Sparta ; 
but no sooner was the news of his death pro- 
claimed in the Athenian assembly than the city 
revolted. The struggle which followed is called 
the " Lamian War " and is memorable chiefly for 
the nobility of Phoeion, the leader of the rebels. 
The Macedonians put down the insurrection. 
Demosthenes and other anti-Macedonian agitators 
fled from the city; the former took refuge in a 
temple of Poseidon (Neptune), and being over- 
taken by his pursuers poisoned himself, and so 
ended his life, 322 B. C. 

After the death of Demosthenes the Greek 
States were promised their freedom successively 
by one after another of the generals who were 
fighting among themselves for a share of Alex- 
ander's kingdom ; but instead of liberty they 
received only the old yoke of subjection to Mace- 
don. In 279 B. C. the Gauls under Brennus, 
moving westward through Europe, overran Mace- 
donia and descended into Central Greece. They 
were a wild, rude race, and for a short space had 
the upper hand in Hellas, but they were driven 
out before reaching the Peloponnesus. One State 



116 Outline History of Greece. 

of Greece which until this time had occupied a 
large area on the map, but has merited scarcely a 
word in this history, now arose to prominence. 
This was Epirus, whose people became w T arlike and 
wealthy, and whose king, Pyrrhus, w r as ambitious 
of military glory. He invaded Italy and met with 
repulse at the hands of the Romans, being one of 
the earliest foreign nations that the Romans ever 
met in battle. In the middle of the third century 
B. C. the States of Greece united in two leagues, 
with the object of winning back their cities from 
the Macedonians, as in former times they had 
employed similar means to expel Persian garri- 
sons from their colonial towns. For a time these 
leagues, the iEtolian and the Acha3an, were suc- 
cessful; but with a spirit of dissension which 
never wholly disappeared from the Greek char- 
acter they took to fighting each other instead of 
turning their united strength against the op- 
pressor. In one of these civil wars (227 B. C.) 
the Achgeans, being hard pressed, called in the Ma- 
cedonians to aid them against their brethren, w T ith 
the sad result that both leagues lost what little 
power they had been able to attain. While they 
were fighting among themselves the Romans, 
having grounds for a quarrel with the King of 
Macedon, sent an army into the country. The 
two leagues joined the Romans against their 
master, and defeated him at Cynoscephalse 197 
B. C. Soon after this the Roman consul, Flam- 
ininus, declared the Greek States free from Mace- 



Macedon Leads— Alexander. 117 

don. But they soon found that this freedom 
was only another way of looking at subjection 
to Rome. Macedon was completely humbled by 
the Romans in the battle of Pydna (168 B. C), 
and the Greeks were made to feel their depend- 
ence upon Rome. They revolted again in 146 
B. C, and to punish them the Romans destroyed 
Corinth, then their most flourishing city. After re- 
maining for a century dependent upon the Roman 
province of Macedonia, Greece was constituted a 
province of Rome under the name of Achaia (27 
B. C.) Her independence, Avhich had been only 
nominal during the supremacy of Macedon, now 
utterly vanished, and it is only as a subject 
country that Greece has existed until the present 
century. 




APSZT 



118 Outline History of Greece. 



CHAPTER XII. 

FIFTH PEKIOD. 

SUBJECT GREECE. 
(146 B. C.-1829 A. D., 1,975 years.) 

I. UNDER ROME, 146 B. C.-395 A. D. 

Rome rose to influence as Greece declined. In 
the age of Pericles (450 B. C), when Athens was 
at the height of her power, the City of the Seven 
Hills, on Tiber bank, had but just asserted her 
sovereignty over the neighboring Latin tribes. 
Sicily was the first Roman conquest outside of 
Italy, and it was in this island that Rome en- 
countered Carthage and began (264 B. C.) that 
Punic duel which lasted for a century. Carthage 
was destroyed (146 B. C.) the very year of the 
fall of Corinth, which marks the overthrow of 
Greece. 

The subjection of Macedonia and Greece occurs 
then, at the beginning of Rome's eastern con- 
quests, and Greece was hereafter, to some extent, 
a battle-ground for Roman wars. The Greeks 
themselves had so declined in moral force that 
they no longer made exertions for their own inde- 
pendence, but joined whichever side their inter- 
est seemed to prompt. The conquering career of 



Subject Greece. 119 

Mithridates, King of Pontus, brought misfortune 
to the Greeks of Hellas as well as to those of 
Asia; and Pompey, who passed through the Greek 
cities on his return from the defeat of Mithridates 
(61 B. C), was welcomed by them as a friend and 
benefactor. A few years later, when he was 
hard pressed in the Civil War by the forces of 
Julius Caesar, he fled to Greece and lost on Thes- 
salian soil the battle of Pharsalus (48 B. C). 
Caesar was kind to Greece, and rebuilt Corinth, 
making it the residence of the Roman proconsul. 
In the next civil war at Rome Brutus and C;issius, 
the murderers of Caesar, had the support of the 
Greek cities against Mark Antony and Octavius 
Caesar. The conspirators were defeated at Phi- 
lippi, in Macedon (42 B. C). Then Octavius and 
Antony fell out, and again Greece was the scene 
of the struggle. Antony had the help of Cleopa- 
tra, the beautiful queen of Egypt, but Octavius 
defeated the allies in the naval battle of Actium 
(31 B. C), and became master of the Roman 
world and, as Augustus Caesar, the most famous 
of its emperors. 

Under the empire Greece had an uneventful 
and ignoble existence. Her finest statues were 
taken to Italy by successive emperors to adorn 
Roman palaces. Many of her best thinkers sought 
in other cities the vigorous thought and life which 
no longer flourished at Athens or Corinth. Yet 
the intellectual eminence of the Greeks remained 
for a long time unquestioned, and it was cus- 



120 Outline History of Greece. 

tomary for Roman youth of the upper classes 
to seek their education at Athens, or to employ 
Greeks as tutors. So great was the influence of 
Greek teachings upon the Romans that it was said, 
with much truth, that " the Greeks captured their 
Roman captors." 

The ancient Greek cities of the iEgean shore, 
and the newer Greece which had sprung up in 
the track of Alexander's conquests, exceeded the 
mother country in vitality. Greek language, arts, 
and literature displaced the inferior civilization 
every- where about the eastern end of the Mediter- 
ranean, thus preparing the soil for the spread of 
the Christian religion. The New Testament was 
written in the wonderful language of Greece, the 
most perfect medium for the expression of thought 
which human lips have ever employed. Paul, 
whose eloquent voice and skillful pen scattered 
abroad the good tidings of the Gospel, was a na- 
tive of Tarsus, a Greek city of Syria, and his edu- 
cation was of the best Greek type. The churches 
which he and his collaborators established in 
Asia were, with hardly an exception, among the 
devout Greeks of cities which had been founded 
by Alexander or by Greeks of an earlier age. In 
Athens and in Corinth the great apostle to the 
Gentiles labored long and vigorously. 

The teachings of the Christian missionaries took 
strong hold upon the Hellenic mind. The Greeks 
had felt the need of some religion more helpful 
than the empty formalism into which their own 



Subject Greece. 121 

bad sunk, and more satisfactory than the philo- 
sophical theories to which the early faith had given 
place in the minds of the more thoughtful. For a 
while the Roman emperors cared enough about the 
old religion to persecute those who believed in 
the new; but the Christian faith worked its way 
among the highest nobles in the empire, and about 
the beginning of the fourth century A. D. was 
espoused by the Emperor Constantine himself. 
This ruler had enlarged the ancient Greek town 
of Byzantium, on the Bosphorus, and made it his 
place of residence, calling it New Rome. Since 
his death it has been called by his own name, 
Constantinople — the polls, or city, of Constantine. 
As a place of royal residence Byzantium multi- 
plied in wealth and population. It had long been 
recognized as possessing the ideal situation for 
controlling the politics and trade of the East, com- 
manding, as it does, the narrow Bosphorus channel 
where Asia and Europe meet, and where the great 
commerce of the Black Sea passes into the Medi- 
terranean. To this city the Roman emperors 
confined themselves more and more until (395 
A. D.) the realm split in two, the Western Empire 
(Italy, France, Germany, Spain) retaining its old 
seat of power at Rome, and the Eastern Empire 
(Greece, Macedonia, Asia) centering at Byzan- 
tium (Constantinople). 



122 Outline History of Greece. 



II. UNDER BYZANTIUM. THE " GREEK EMPIRE," 

395 A. D.-1453 A. D. 

The influences whicli controlled the court of By- 
zantium were Christian and Greek. Hellas itself 
(Achaia) was one of the provinces allotted to the 
Eastern Empire, and the influences of the most civ- 
ilized province of the realm were sufficient to give 
its name to the whole. The dominion of whicli 
Constantinople was the capital is therefore known 
to history as the " Greek Empire." * Even in the 
old Roman Empire Greek had been the language 
of commerce and polite society ; and it was here 
accepted as the official tongue. The treasures 
which Rome had spared to the Greek cities were 
collected and sent to adorn the new capital on the 
Bosphorus. Manuscripts of the classic writers, 
sculptures and paintings, from the best periods of 
Greek art, enriched the buildings and libraries of 
the city, and made it the intellectual center of the 
world. It was here that the wonders of the Greek 
mind were preserved during the dark ages, to be 
given to the world again at the dawn of a new 
era. The Western Empire was shattered by the 
invasions of the Gothic barbarian tribes from 
Northern Europe within a century after its sepa- 
ration from the Greek Empire ; but the latter 

*It is also called the Eastern Empire to distinguish it from 
the Western which continued for a time with its capital at 
Rome ; and it is often termed the Byzantine Empire from the 
early name of its capital (Byzantium). 



Subject Gkeece. 123 

maintained its existence for eleven hundred years. 
The division of the empire gave rise to the dif- 
ferences in religion on which the two great Eu- 
ropean religious sects are founded — the Roman 
and Greek Catholic Churches, one body recogniz- 
ing the headship of the Pope of Rome, the other 
looking up to the Greek Patriarch of Constanti- 
nople. The old religion of the Greeks — the be- 
lief in Zeus, Diana, and the other deities of the 
early faith— disappeared entirely at the advance 
of the Christian doctrines. It naturally lingered 
longest in the remote country districts, where the 
people were not open to innovations. These rus- 
tics lived in the pctgi, or villages, and were so 
called pagcmi, or " pagans," as we have since 
called all unchristian people. Under Justinian, 
who was emperor of the East in the sixth century 
after Christ, the teachings of the Greek philoso- 
phers were forbidden, and their schools were 
closed. Under this monarch the Greek Empire 
reached its greatest extent, his general, Belisarius, 
being the conqueror of the northern shore of 
Africa and of Italy, which for a century had been 
in the hands of the barbarians. But these con- 
quests were not lasting. The rise of the Arabian 
caliphs — the religious warriors who extended the 
Mohammedan faith in its early days — cut off many 
valuable provinces from the Byzantine Empire, 
and the Turks, who succeeded to their religion 
and dominions by reason of greater military skill, 
overran all Asia Minor and attacked the city of 



124 Outline History of Greece. 

Constantinople itself. In 1453 A. D., thirty-nine 
years before Columbus set sail for the New World, 
the Greek capital fell into the hands of Moham- 
med II, the Turkish sultan. The Turks continued 
their march through South-western Europe, adding 
Greece and Macedonia to their empire, threatening 
Vienna and Central Europe, and laying the foun- 
dations of the power whose decaying remnants still 
remain to vex the peace of the world. 

III. GREECE UNDER THE TURKS, 1453-1829 A. D. 

The history of the Greeks after the fall of Con- 
stantinople is one of the most doleful episodes in 
history. They had already lived under the domi- 
nation of the Macedonians and the Romans ; but, 
save in isolated cases, like those of Thebes and 
Corinth, they had never been treated with extreme 
severity. The Macedonians were of the same 
race, language, and religion as themselves, and so 
long as they were sure of the submission of the 
vanquished people made no effort to burden them 
with heavy laws and unjust taxes. The Romans had 
been as lenient. They looked upon the Greeks as 
a weak race, inferior to themselves in the stern vir- 
tues which a Roman prized ; but they acknowledged 
their intellectual eminence, and were content to 
learn what lessons might be drawn from their suc- 
cesses in art and literature without dealing with 
them as a subject people. The Greek religion was 
similar to that of the Romans, and both nations ac- 



Subject Greece. 125 

cepted Christianity at about the same time. The 
dependence upon Byzantium is hardly to be con- 
sidered a subjection at all, for the Byzantines, if at 
first Romans, were at least those to whom the at- 
tractions of Greek life were so strong that they 
had left the imperial city to dwell in a Greek 
colony and among Hellenic influences. Hitherto, 
therefore, the Greeks had fared well under their 
masters. They were, perhaps, even more peace- 
ful and meekly at home than they had been in 
their old days of freedom, when local jealousies 
had been the cause of continual war. 

But the change which the Turkish rule wrought 
in their condition was marked and terrible. They 
were now subject to a cruel Mongol race, of dif- 
ferent civilization, language, and religion from 
their own. These Ottoman Turks believed it their 
duty to pursue w r ith the utmost cruelty all Chris- 
tians who refused to accept the religion of the 
" Prophet " Mohammed.* The Greeks were cast 
down from their place of influence and treated as 
infidel dogs. Their Church of St. Sophia at Con- 
stantinople, which had been built by Justinian, 
and which still remains among the finest specimens 
of Byzantine architecture, became a Mohammedan 

* "By his law all men every- where were to be given their 
choice of Koran, Tribute, or Sword; that is, that they were 
either to accept the teaching of his book called the Koran, to 
buy the right of practicing their own religion by paying tribute, 
or else to fight. These terms have been offered to other nations 
by all Mohammedan conquerors ever since." — E. A. Freeman. 



126 Outline History of Greece. 

mosque, and their high-priest was publicly put to 
death. In Hellas, their old home, they were 
treated with the same cruelty, taxes of deadening 
weight were imposed upon all their activities, 
agricultural and commercial, and a still heavier 
tax was the yearly blood-tribute of male children 
for the sultan's army. These years of inhu- 
man oppression numbered nearly four hundred 
(1453-1829 A. D.). During a large portion of 
this time every one of the old aspirations which 
had marked the Greek race was stifled. They 
were no longer pure Greeks, their Hellenic blood 
being diluted by alliance with the Slav and Ger- 
man nations, who pressed in from the north. They 
were sunk in ignorance by their conquerors at a 
time when the rest of Europe was opening its eyes 
in wonder at the treasures of Greek learning 
which had been disclosed by the breaking up of 
the old empire at Constantinople. Commerce de- 
serted the Greek cities, and sought Venice and 
Genoa. Western Europe, led by Italy, which 
first caught the light that the Greek teachers 
driven from Constantinople now shed abroad in 
the dark monkish schools of the Middle Ages, re- 
ceived a new impetus in every intellectual field. 
The revival of learning, the invention of printing, 
the discovery of the New World, and the religious 
Reformation, opened new channels for European 
progress, wdiile Greece, the nation which had led 
the van for two thousand years, was held in dark- 
ness and slavery by the rude hand of the Turk. 



Liberated Greece — Modern Kingdom. 127 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SIXTH PERIOD. 

LIBERATED GREECE THE MODERN KINGDOM. 

(1829-1888 A.D.) 

In 1821 the Greeks, who had submitted to their 
slavery only at the point of the sword, made a 
determined effort to free themselves. For years 
a national movement had been growing among the 
Hellenes, and secret societies had been propagated 
with the object of organizing the people for a 
revolution. The rebellion took place in 1821, when 
Turkey was weak and already had her attention 
fixed upon a revolt in Albania. But the uprising 
was not simultaneous nor universal, and by attack- 
ing it wherever it showed its head the Turkish 
generals kept the trouble within bounds for a few 
years. The battles of this war for Greek inde- 
pendence are noteworthy for the spirit displayed 
by the Greeks, and for the frightful cruelties with 
which the victors marred their successes. It is 
said that two hundred thousand Greeks perished 
in the long struggle against the enormous odds 
which were brought against them. 

Their heroes, Marco Bozzaris, 

" One of the few, the immortal names 
That were not born to die; " 



128 Outline History of Greece. 

Canaris, "the bravest man of all that modern 
history records ; " Miaulis, and the rest of the 
distinguished list, were not without sympathy 
from abroad. Many of the patriots were young 
men who had been educated in the univer- 
sities of Western Europe, and who had strong 
personal friends among the foreigners who had 
been their fellow-students. Moreover, the cause 
of Greek liberty was one peculiarly fitted to 
enlist the sympathy of outsiders. There is no 
other country whose records are studied with 
such zeal ; no other race whose writings and 
whose public men seem to belong to the whole 
world rather than to a single people. Men of 
romantic minds, accustomed by classical training 
to regard the Greeks as a superior race, read 
with horror the tales of Turkish cruelty which 
filled the newspapers of England, Germany, and 
France. Enthusiastic Germans joined with En- 
glishmen and Americans in offering their services 
to the struggling Greeks. The poets Mtiller and 
Byron, and the American philanthropist Dr. S. G. 
Howe, the " Cadmus of the blind," were among 
the many who gave personal support to the cause, 
and who, from their love for the Greeks, were 
called "Philhellenes." From 1824 to 1827 the 
Greeks gained in strength, and Turkey was obliged 
to call in the Egyptians under Mehemet Ali to put 
an end to the rebellion. The powers of Europe — 
England, France, and Russia — then interfered to 
prevent war, and sent a fleet to the Peloponnesus 



LlBEKATED GREECE MoDEEX KlNGDOM. 129 

(now called the Morea) to hold the Turks in check. 
The allies lay near the Turkish fleet in the harbor 
of Navarino, and there, by mistake, a battle was 
begun October 20, 1827, which ended in the de- 
struction of the Turkish ships. The allies drove 
the Egyptians out of the country, and the Russians 
took up the war and prosecuted it with such vigor 
that in 1829 Turkey signed the Treaty of Adriano- 
ple, in which she agreed to accept the terms of the 
Conference of European Powers to beheld at Lon- 
don in the following year. The London Conference 
(1830) declared Greece independent. After a troub- 
led period under a provisional president Greece 
became an hereditary monarchy, with Otto of Ba- 
varia as king. He had too great a fondness for 
Germans, and slighted home interests. The people 
rose and expelled him from the country in 1862. 
The vacant throne was offered to George, son of 
the King of Denmark, and brother to the Princess 
of Wales and the present Empress of Russia. He 
accepted (1863), and was crowned king, Great 
Britain giving him the Ionian Islands to strength- 
en his kingdom. His reign has been, in the main, 
prosperous. Athens is now a large and growing 
city. Education is advancing, and the people are 
beginning to reap the fruits of liberty; but they 
are by no means satisfied with their condition. 

The present boundaries of Greece are not those 
of Hellas in the time of Pericles, nor do they in- 
clude all the Greek race. European Turkey and 
the cities of Asia Minor have many hundred 
9 



130 Outline History of Greece. 

thousands of Greek inhabitants, and it is the 
dream of the " Pan-Hellenists " to unite all these 
lands in one grand empire. In the Congress of 
Berlin, which made the terms of the latest settle- 
ment between Turkey and her dependencies in 
Europe, the Greeks were granted a tract of Thes- 
salian territory which they had long claimed. 
Turkey, however, has never relinquished her hold 
upon this slice of Hellas, and the powers of 
Europe, fearing the complications to which such 
a war might lead, have been obliged to repress 
the efforts of Greece to compel Turkey to carry 
out the award of Europe. Until this question of 
boundaries is settled the little Greek kingdom is 
likely to furnish considerable anxiety to the great 
Powers of Europe, which are so anxious to pre- 
serve the " balance of power." Turkey long ago 
fell into decay. Her dominions in Europe, which 
were bound to her only by fear, have dwindled to 
a fragment of their former extent. Roumania 
and Servia, as well as Greece, are free, and Bul- 
garia would follow them if Germany and Russia 
would permit. It is only a question of time when 
the enfeebled Turk — "the sick man of Europe" — 
will be driven back into Asia and his capital will 
fall to another. The "Eastern Question" is, Who 
shall succeed the Turk ? Russia covets Constan- 
tinople as the best defense for her Black Sea com- 
merce. England and Austria would go to war 
(as England has done before) rather than permit 
Russian domination of the Bosphorus. At this 



Liberated Greece — Modern Kingdom. 131 

juncture the ambitious Greeks offer their solution. 
They ask to be allowed to revive the old Greek 
Empire, and with a sovereign of their choice 
reigning in the city of Constantine, to reunite 
the scattered Greeks of Europe and Asia into a 
powerful Pan-Hellenic State. 

In the preceding pages we have sketched the 
eventful course of Grecian history from its misty 
be^innin^s, through the glories of the Persian 
Wars and the age of Pericles, and through the 
humiliation of many masters and many centuries, 
to the new dawn of liberty. The record may w r ell 
be closed wdth this project of an " All Greek Em- 
pire," the bright vision of futurity which floats 
before the eyes of the modern Greeks. 




1-32 Outline History of Greece. 



Review Outline — History. 

First Period: Earliest Greece. Heroic. 2000-1000 B.C. 

1000 years. 

Earlier nations, Egypt, Tsrael, Phenicia {alphabet). No light. 
Pearliest Greeks, Aryans, Hellenes, (Ionian, Dorian, iEolian), 
Pelasgi (mound-builders), Mycenae, Dorian Invasion. Athens 
vs. Sparta. Foreign influences, Egyptians, Phenicians, Phryg- 
ians, Cadmus, Cecrops, Danaus, Pelops. Mythology (Argo, 
Troy, Calydonian Boar-hunt, Labors of Hercules). 

Second Period: Earlier Greece. Homeric. 1000-776 B. C. 

224 years. 
Songs. Homer, Hesiod (Iliad and Odyssey). Customs and 
government. Lycurgus. Constitutions of Sparta and Athens. 
Oligarchies. 

Third Period : Early Greece. History and Tradition. 776- 
500 B. C. 276 years. 
Naiional games. Olympic. First Olympiad, 776 B. C. Mili- 
tary Sparta. Messenian wars. "Prussia and Sadowa." Sparta 
supreme in Peloponnesus. Athens. Eupatrids ("blue- 
bloods"). Draco. Solon (rule of rich). Age of Tyrannies. 
Periander, Poly crates, Pisistratus (Homeric poems). Hippias 
and Hipparchus. Harmodius and Aristogiton. Clisthenes. 
Democracy. Ostracism. 

Fourth Period: Greater Greece. 500-146 B. C. 354 years. 
L Persian Wars. 500-479 B. C. 21 years. 
Hippias at Susa. Persia. Cyrus. Darius. Croesus. Sar- 
dis. Ionian Eevolt. Athens and Eretria. First Persian Ex- 
pedition, Mardonius. Second Persian Expedition, Datis and 
Artaphernes. Marathon, Miltiades. Aristides aud Themisto- 
cles. Athenian Fleet. Third (greatest) Persian Expedition, 
Xerxes. Thermopylae, Leonidas, 300 Spartans. Artemisium. 



Review Outline — History. 133 

Burning of Athens. Salamis. Fourth (last) Persian Expedi- 
tion, Mardonius. Platsea, Pausanias. Mycale. 

II. Athens Leads. 479-404 B.C. 75 years. 

Athens Champion. Confederacy of Delos. The Fleet. 
Cimon and Aristides. The long walls. Pericles. Athens in 
her Prime. Peloponnesian War — twenty-seven years. Plague, 
Cleon, Nicias. Demosthenes. Brasidas. Sphacteria. Am- 
phipolis. Peace of Nicias. Alcibiades. Argive League. 
Sicilian Expedition. Decelea. Lysander. ^Egospotami. Cap- 
ture of Athens. 

III. Sparta Leads. 404-371 B. C. 33 years. 

Constitutional changes. Oligarchies. Commissioners. 
Thirty Tyrants. Thrasybulus. Intellectual Excellence of 
Athens. Socrates. Xenophon, "Retreat of the Ten Thou- 
sand." Persian Influence. Rise of Thebes. Pelopidas, Epa- 
mmondas. Leuctra. 

IV. TJiehes Leads. 371-361 B. C. 10 years. 
Disunion. Thebes. Spartan Degeneracy. Messene and 
Megalopolis. New Military tactics. Mantinea. 

V. Macedon Leads. 361-146 B. C. 215 years. 

The Macedonians (phalanx, sarissa). Disunion in Greece. 
Social War. Athens loses strength. Sacred Wars. Philip 
enters Greece. Demosthenes. Amphictyonic Council. Elatea. 
Chseronea. Congress of Corinth. Philip, Commander-in- 
Chief, Assassinated. Alexander the Great. Thebes. Persian 
Expedition. Granicus. " Gordian Knot." Issus, Tyre, Jeru- 
salem. Alexandria. Ammon. Arbela. Conquest of Central 
Asia. India. (Died 323. 33 years old.) Successors. Egypt 
under Ptolemies. Alexandria. Syria under Seleucidas. Ma- 
cedon and Greece. Lamian War. Demosthenes dies. 
Leagues. Cynoscephalae. Pydna. Corinth. Rome. Achaia. 



134 Outline History of Greece. 

Fifth Period: Subject Greece. 146 B. C. 1829 A. D. 1975 

years. 

I. Under Rome. 146 B. C. 395 A. D. 541 years. 
Rise of Rome. Greece, the Roman Battle-ground. Decay 
of National Spirit. Pliarsalus. Philippi. Actium. Growth 
of Greek Cities in Asia. Christians. Paul. Constantme. 
Byzantium. Division of Empire. 395 A. D. 

II. Under Byzantium. " Greek Empire." 395 A. D. 1453 A. D. 
Greek Influence on Eastern Empire. Justinian. " Pagans." 
Belisarius. Byzaniine Culture. Caliphs. Turks. Fall of 
Constantinople. 

III. Under Turkey. 1453 A. D. 1829 A. D. 3f 6 years. 
Oppression. Tax. Blood-tribute. Decay. Progressive 
Europe. Hellas left Behind. 

Sixth Period: Liberated Greece. 1829 A. D. 1888 A. D. 

59 years. 

Ambitions. Secret Societies. Rising of 1821. Philhel- 
lenism in Europe and America (Lord Byron, William Muller, 
Dr. Howe). Cruelties. Heroism (Bozzaris, Canaris, Miaulis). 
Mehemet Ali. Navarino. Russia. Peace of Adrianople, 
1829. Independent Greece, 1829. Declared at London, 1830. 
King Otto, 1832. King George, 1863. Progress. Plans of 
Pan-Hellenist Politicians. A new Greek Empire on the site 
of Turkey. 

outline examination. 

Name the six general periods of Greek history. 

"What is the length of the first? second? third? fourth? 
fifth? sixth? 

From what Eastern family did the Greeks descend ? 

What three nations contributed by immigration to the de- 
velopment of the Greeks ? 

Name the three Hellenic tribes ? 



Review Outline — History. 



135 



Of what tribe was Sparta champion? Athens? 

What poets and what lawgiver nourished during the second 
period? 

What was the " Olympiad?" 

Name two rival States of Greece. 

What were the Messenian wars ? 

What was the government of Athens? of Sparta? 

Who were the following persons : Draco, Solon, Periander, 
Pisistratus, Hippias, Hipparchus, Clischenes? 

Into how many parts do we divide the fourth period of 
Greek history? 

Give i he length of each. 

Into how many parts is the fifth period divided ? 

Under what nation did Greece suffer most ? 

How did Alexander's conquests affect Greece ? 

Wiiat influence had the Greeks on the Romans? 

What was the " revival of learning ?" 

Who were the following persons: Miltiades, Themistocles, 
Leonidas, Aristides, Pericles, Alcibiades, Lysander, Thrasy- 
bulus. Socrates, Xenophon, Pelopidas, Epaminondas, Philip, 
Demosthenes, Alexander, Otto, George? 

What peoples were prominent in the following wars and 
battles : Arbela, Messenian, Trojan, Chaeronea, Marathon, 
Mantinea, Salamis, Leuctra, Platasa, Mycale ? 




136 Outline History of Greece. 



PART III.— BIOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE MEN OF EARLY TIMES. 
(2000-500 B. C.) 

As we have devoted one division of this little 
volume to a study of the geography and people 
of Greece, and a second to a consideration of the 
principal events in the history of the nation, Ave 
may appropriately close with a review of Greek 
biography. We shall now present in the same 
chronological order which has been followed in 
the preceding chapters the great biographical cen- 
ters of Greek history — the men of Hellas whose 
influence for ^ood or evil was felt for ages after 
they lived and in lands to them undreamed of. 

FIRST PERIOD. EARLIEST GREECE, 2000-1000 B. C. 

The reader will remember that we found few 
facts upon which we could rely for the history of 
earliest Greece. Of the men of this period we 
know still less than of the events, for we no longer 
accept as true the traditions of heroes and early 
settlers which the Greeks themselves believed. 
But, for the reason that these mythical or semi- 



The Men of Early Times. 137 

mythical personages are prominent figures in the 
legendary history, we must give some account of 
them. 

1. Cecrops was the first king of Attica, and the 
founder of Athens. According to one set of 
fables he was of divine origin, others said he 
came from Egypt. He was chosen umpire of the 
dispute between Poseidon and Athena for the 
possession of the new city. The water-god showed 
the spring which gushed out where he had thrust 
his trident, as an evidence of his prior claim, but 
Athena pointed to the sacred olive tree on the 
Acropolis, which had grown at her command. 
Cecrops awarded the victory to her, and she be- 
came the guardian goddess of Athens. The date 
assigned to the founding of Athens is 1550 B. C, 
when Moses, the lawgiver, was a young man in 
Pharaoh's court. Danaus, who fled from Egypt 
with his fifty daughters and founded Argos, is a 
creation similar to Cecrops, and represents the 
introduction of Egyptian customs into Greece in 
the earliest times. 

2. Cadmus was another of these national repre- 
sentatives. The fable said that he was a prince 
of Phenicia who came to Bceotia and there 
founded the city of Thebes. He killed a dragon, 
and from its teeth, which he sowed in the ground, 
sprang armed men who helped him to build the 
city. The citadel of Thebes bore his name, " Cad- 
mea.*' Cadmus is said to have brought with him 
from Phenicia the alphabet, which lie taught the 



138 Outline History of Greece. 

Greeks, The date of the founding of Thebes 
is set down as 1493 B. C, about the time of the 
Hebrew " Exodus." 

3. As Cecrops and Cadmus represent Egyptian 
and Phenician influences upon the Hellenes, Pelops 
stands for the influence of Phrygia, an early 
kingdom in the north-western angle of Asia Minor. 
There is some evidence that such a man really ex- 
isted and came to the Peloponnesus ("Island of 
Pelops") about 1300 B. C, between the times of 
the Bible personages Ruth and Deborah. His de- 
scendants ruled at Argos and, perhaps, united the 
Greeks for the Trojan war. Agamemnon and 
Menelaus were among his successors, and it is the 
palace and tomb of the former which Dr. Schlie- 
mann claims to have unearthed at Mycenae. 

4. Perseus is one of a class of heroes who differ 
slightly from the four persons who have just been 
noticed. The latter were city founders ; these 
are miracle workers, city heroes, and their advent- 
ures are the theme of numberless interesting 
stories. These heroes were the offspring of the 
gods, and after death they were supposed to be- 
come gods. Prominent among these men were 
five: Perseus, Theseus, Orpheus, Minos, Hercules. 

Theseus was the hero of the Ionian tribes, and 
especially of Athens, a sort of Ionian St. Patrick, 
who killed the bull-man Minotaur, and delivered 
the city from the tribute of youths and virgins 
which he exacted. He is reverenced as the or- 
ganizer of the Attic people into the three orders, 



The Men of Early Times. 139 

Eupatrids, or " blue-bloods," peasants, and arti- 
sans. 

Perseus, son of Danae and Jupiter, killed the 
Gorgon Medusa, who turned men to stone by a 
look, and liberated the beautiful Andromeda, 
whom a sea-monster had bound to a rock. 

Orpheus, son of Apollo, and one of the "Muses," 
was a royal poet and musician of magic skill. The 
notes of his lyre quieted storms and moved the 
trees and rocks. His journey to the infernal re- 
gions in quest of his dead wife Euridice is the 
most interesting episode of his career. 

Minos, king of Crete, was considered by the 
Greeks the first great lawgiver. After his death 
he was believed to be one of the judges in the 
lower world (Hades), where he decided the fate of 
souls. " It is worthy of notice that the traditional 
lawgivers of many nations have borne similar 
names : Menu, in India ; Menes, in Egypt; Manis, 
in Lydia ; Minos, in Crete, and M 'annus, in Ger- 
many, may all be mythical names for man the 
thinker, as distinguished from the savage." 

Hercules, son of Jupiter and Alcmena, was the 
strong man of the race. The Dorians adopted 
him as their national hero; their kings claimed to 
be his descendants: " Heraclidae," sons of Hera- 
cles (Hercules). 

Hercules in his youth chose Virtue instead of 
Vice as his guide, and Jupiter declared that he 
should at death be made a god if he would perform 
" twelve tasks " which should be put upon him. 



140 Outline History op Greece. 

He succeeded. Dr. Brewer thus puts them into 
rhyme : 

THE TWELVE LABORS OF HERCULES. 

"The Nemean lion first he killed; then Lerna's hydra slew; 
Th' Arcadian stag and monster boar before Eurystheus drew ; 
Cleansed Augeas' stalls ; and made the birds from Lake Stym- 

phalis flee : 
The Cretan bull, and Thracian mares, first seized and then set 

free; 
Took prize the Amazonian belt; brought G-eryon's kine from 

G-ades ; 
Fetched apples from th' Hesperides; and Cerberus from 

Hades." 

5. Codrus, the seventeenth and last king of Ath- 
ens, died about 1045 B. C, about the time that 
David became king of Israel. During a Dorian in- 
vasion of Attica he " devoted himself," that is, gave 
his life for that of the city. The nobles refused to 
let his son Medon wear the crown, but, lessening 
his powers, made him the first of the Archons, or 
rulers; an office which eleven members of this an- 
cient family held in succession. 

The story is thus related : There was a war be- 
tween Athens and the Heraclidse; the Delphian 
Oracle said : "If the Athenian king die the Athe- 
nians shall win in this war." Codrus disguised him- 
self as a peasant, went into the camp of the enemy, 
and struck one of the soldiers, who immediately 
slew him. When the Heraclidse found that they 
had slain the Athenian king they at once withdrew 
from the Athenian territory. The Athenians 
thereupon decreed that no other man was worthy 



The Men of Eakly Times. 141 

to bear the title of "king." So they abolished it 
and made "Archons " instead. 

There were also concerted enterprises in heroic 
times in which many heroes united in performing 
wonders. 

1. The Argonautic Expedition in quest of the 
golden fleece, about 1263 B. C, just before the 
time of Gideon in Israel. 

2. The Siege of Troy, 1194-1184 B. C, about 
the time of Jephthah in Israel. 

3. The Return of the Heraclidse, another name 
for the Dorian invasion of Peloponnesus, about 
1104 B. C, while Samuel w T as judge of Israel. 

4. The Seven against Thebes. The attacks of 
Polynices and his six allies upon Thebes, the city 
of King CEdipus. 



Memory | r p , lArsro. 2 Tro. 

Outline, f Le - ca * Fel - ^ ei - t0 - 3 Do> 4 TJie> 



SECOND PERIOD. EARLIER GREECE, 1000-776 B. C. 

Of the second period of Grecian history we 
found two well established monuments: a poem 
and a constitution. The reputed authors of 
the two are the chief names of this uncertain 
epoch. 

6. Homer, " the blind old beggar bard," flour- 
ished somewhere between Solomon, the great 
King of Israel (1000 B. C.), and Elijah, the 
prophet of Jehovah (896 B. C.) 

Homer was " the most celebrated poet that ever 



142 Outline History of Greece. 

lived ;" his "Iliad and Odyssey are the noblest of 
all poems ; " they " breathe the fresh charm of 
the poetic spring-time of the world." " In them he 
has displayed the most consummate knowledge of 
human nature, and rendered himself immortal by 
the sublimity, fire, sweetness, and elegance of his 
poetry." " No one preceded him; no one has 
since equaled him." Aristotle prepared an edition 
of Homer for Alexander the Great, who kept it in 
a golden case under his pillow. Ancient writings 
say that the great poet was blind. After his 
death seven cities claimed his birth. Hesiod, 
who lived a century later, was " a Boeotian and 
a practical farmer," who wrote of rural life and 
of the Greek gods. His poems are tranquil and 
beautiful. They still exist. He said : " The 
road to vice is short and easy, to virtue dif- 
ficult, long, and steep." " Work is no disgrace, 
but idleness is a disgrace." " A bad neighbor is 
as great a misfortune as a good one is a blessing." 
"Do not make unjust gains; they are losses." 

7. Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, probably 
lived about the time of Elisha (850 B. C), or later 
on, in the time of Isaiah (766 B. C). 

Lycurgus declined the Spartan crown, when 
by a dishonorable act he might easily have secured 
it. He made the people of Sparta swear that they 
would abide by his laws until his return, and then 
left the country to travel abroad and die in a for- 
eign land. He made of Sparta an "aristocratic 
republic," and laid the foundation of the military 



The Men of Early Times. 143 

discipline and valor which are always connected 
with the Spartan name. 

Sparta, the land of Lycurgus, was also called 
Laconia. The people were taught to speak in 
short, pithy sentences. To this day that style of 
speaking is called "laconic." 

There was this custom in company at the pub- 
lic meals : The oldest man present, pointing to 
the door, said, "No word spoken here goes out 
there." 



Outlined [ 1 C * 2 C. 3 P. 4 P. 5 C. 6 Ho. 7 Ly. Ar. Tr. Do. Th. 



THIRD PERIOD. EARLY GREECE, 776-500 B. C. 

The third period of Grecian history introduces 
us to a time when we are able to distinguish a 
number of really historic personages, although 
many of the stories which are told of them are 
doubtless fables. The time between the first re- 
corded victory in the Olympic games, 776 B. C, 
and the beginning of the troubles which culmi- 
nated in the memorable struggle against Persia 
includes two important subjects: the earlier con- 
quests of Sparta (Messenian wars) and the develop- 
ment of the Athenian democracy, the latter de- 
layed for two generations by the Age of Tyrants. 
In this biographical division we shall have to con- 
sider, therefore, the heroes of the Messenian wars, 
the Athenian lawgivers, and the Tyrants. 

8. Aristodemus was king and commander of 



144 Outline History of Greece. 

the Messenians in their first war of resistance to 
Sparta. 

9. Aristomenes, a Messenian of royal blood, 
distinguished himself in the second Messenian 
war. His bravery almost overcame the Spartans, 
who might have lost the fight had it not been for 
TyrtsBus. 

10. Tyrtaeus was a school-master sent from 
Athens to aid Sparta in the second Messenian 
war. An oracle had predicted that the Spartans 
would be unsuccessful unless they had an Athenian 
leader. The Athenians, not wishing to aid in the 
glory and importance of Sparta, sent Tyrtaeus, 
who was lame, and ignorant of war. His songs 
inspired the soldiers, and the conquest of the 
Messenians was accomplished. He was "small, 
lame, and despised," and a school-master at Athens, 
but " his rude, strong verses made Sparta the mas- 
ter of Greece." Fragments of his verse survive. 
He wrote, "It is honorable for a brave man to 
die, having fallen in the front of the ranks fight- 
ing for his fatherland," and "Never does the fair 
fame perish of him who dies for his country ; 
though he be underground his name is immortal." 

11. Draco, the severe Athenian lawgiver, lived 
one hundred years after the Messenian Aristome- 
nes. The story goes that the Athenians, who had 
no written laws, demanded a code from their rulers 
that they might not sin through ignorance of the 
law. Draco, the archon, prepared a list so severe 
that they were said to be " written in blood." His 



The Men of Early Times. 145 

laws inflicted death for all crimes, and in defense 
of this he said, " The smallest crime deserves 
death, and I can find no heavier penalty for the 
greatest." 

12. Solon, "the great Athenian lawgiver," and 
one of the " seven sages of Greece," lived about 
600 B. C. He was the statesman who revised the 
harsh aristocratic laws of Draco and substituted 
a code which took the political power from the 
Eupatrids ("blue-bloods"), and distributed it 
among the citizens in proportion to the amount of 
their landed property. He was a " blue-blood " 
himself, but was also a statesman of "light and 
leading," avIio dared to break away from the old 
forms, and with genuine Hellenic originality, and 
with no guide but the reasoning of his own brain, 
to transfer power from a class who held it as a 
god-given prerogative and give it to the free-born 
people. His system was much extended by the 
men who came after him, but Solon must have the 
credit of taking the first bold step toward the 
creation of the famous Athenian democracy — the 
pattern of republics. 

After ruling the city of Athens, as archon, and 
securing the adoption of his laws, Solon traveled 
widely in foreign lands. "He had -made great 
changes, but he feared that others, or himself, 
indeed, might be persuaded to make further altera- 
tions." He therefore bound the Athenians by 
oaths that for ten years they would suffer no 
change in his laws. To make it impossible that 
10 



146 Outline History of Greece. 

any changes should come from himself, he departed 
on his long pilgrimage. 

He returned to Athens to find the men of the 
hills, the plains, and the coast arrayed against 
each other in civil war. The hill men were led 
by Pisistratus, a scheming " blue-blood." Solon 
warned the people against his plot, but they would 
not listen, and Pisistratus made himself Tvrant of 
Athens. 

Solon was "a profuse writer of 



,ESOP. 

619-5G4 B. C. 

The writer 

of Fables. 



verses as well as a lawgiver." He 



was also one of the seven wise men of 
Greece: Bias, Chilo, Cleobulus, Pittacus, Perian- 
der, Thales, and Solon. 

Amonp; the sententious utterances of the 
" seven wise men" are the following: "Know 
thyself," "Avoid excess," "Consider the end," 
" Know thy opportunity," " Suretyship is the 
precursor of ruin," " The greatest blessing a man 
can enjoy is the power of doing good," " Pardon 
is often a more effectual check on crime than 
punishment." 

Thespis was one of the earliest of Greek actors. 
Solon, attending one of his performances, said: 
" Thespis, art thou not ashamed to speak so many 
lies ? " " It was all in jest," replied the actor. 
Solon, smiting: the ground with his staff, indi^- 
nantly answered: "By speaking falsely in jest 
we acquire the habit of speaking falsely in serious 
matters." Solon, being asked how to banish in- 
justice from a republic, replied : " By making all 



The Mex of Early Times. 147 

men feel the injustice to each." Contemporary 
with Solon was Sappho, the celebrated Greek 
poetess. 

"Where burning Sappho loved and sung." 

Ancient writers call her the "tenth muse" — 
the " immortal nine " being the goddesses of 
poetry. 

13. Pisistratus, "the founder of the great 
Athenian tyranny," was of noble birth, and a 
relative of Solon, the reformer. He saw how his 
class was losing power by reason of the changes 
in the constitution, and was clever enough to 
mold circumstances to his own gain. The story 
is that he appeared before the people robbed and 
wounded, and, declaring that his life was not safe 
from the factions, asked the citizens to grant him 
a body-guard. Solon warned them against him, 
but the people granted the guard. Pisistratus 
then seized the Acropolis (citadel) and made 
himself sole ruler (Tyrant) of Athens (560 B. C). 
He was twice deposed, but regained his power and 
left it to his sons, Hippias and Hipparehus. The 
two together were called the Pisistratidge ; the 
latter was murdered, the former banished. Hip- 
pias for his revenge incited the Persian king 
Darius to invade Greece. 
anacreon] Pisistratus was "the cleverest of 

530 b. c. the nobles;" "though he sained his 

The Society ' to & # 

Poet. J power by force, he used it wisely 

and well;" "he ruled mildly, encouraged the 



148 



Outline History of Greece. 



PINDAR. 
522-433 B. C. 

The Great- 
est of Lyric 
Poets. 



tival. 



to 



arts, and edited Homer ; " he " not only enforced 
strict obedience to the laws, but 
himself set an example of submit- 
ting to them." He enlarged and 
embellished the Pan - Athenaic f es- 
serve as the crown of the religion 
which bound together the Ionic tribes, as the 
common center for the highest developments 
in art, in the drama, in painting, in sculpture, 
and in music." While Hippias was Tyrant of 
Athens, the old nobles tried by every means to 
unseat him, but they were too weak. Accord- 
ingly, they persuaded, probably by bribes, the 
Oracle of Apollo at Delphi to give but one response 
to every Spartan who came to consult it on any 
subject. This unmistakable answer was, " Athens 
must be set free." It was this which instigated 
the Spartans to overthrow the tyrant, thus has- 
tening two dissimilar conclusions, the " Reforms 
of Clisthenes " and the Persian Wars. 



PYTHAGORAS. 
600-520. 

The Philoso- 
pher. 



SIMONIDES. 

556-467 B. C. 

"He Perfect- 
ed the Epi- 
gram." 



AESCHYLUS. 

525-456. 
The First Great 
Tragic Poet. 



14. Clisthenes, more than any other man, was 
the founder of the Athenian democracy. He 
flourished at Athens about 510 B. C. Although a 
nobleman by birth, he u took the people into 
partnership," and broke down the power of the 
Eupatrids. The old tribes were religious organi- 
zations, and the Eupatrids had a kind of priestly 



The Men of Early Times. 



149 



power over them. By substituting ten tribes 
for the ancient four, the religious authority of 
the aristocracy was canceled. Each tribe had 
its own place of worship, was represented by 
fifty senators in the Council of Five Hundred, 
and each appointed one of the ten generals of 
the army. Moreover, there was an Ekklesia or 
general assembly of citizens, and nine archons 
were chosen by lot from the citizens every year. 
" He carried the work of Solon to its legitimate 
issue." "His plans abated the rivalries of the 
rich, and the poor saw that they too had a share in 
the State." The work of Solon and Clisthenes can 
not be too highly valued. They were the first 
republicans' of whom we have record — the first 
men who had sufficient confidence in manhood to 
admit all freemen to share in the crovernino* 

o o. 

power. 

Clisthenes gave the people power to ostracize 
(banish) citizens, and he was among the first who 
was ostracized. 



ory [ C. C. P. P. C. H. L. 8 Ar. 9 Ar. 10 Tyr. 
Outline, j" ^Dra. 12 So. 13 Pi. 14 Cli. 

Seven Sages and Sa. JE. Pi. An. Msc. Py. Si. 




150 Outline History of Greece. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE MEN OF GREATER GREECE. 
(500-146 B. C.) 

Great names crowd the history of Greece from 
the outbreak of the Persian wars (500 B. C.) to 
the Roman conquest. We can give space to only 
a few of the most eminent men of action of this 
period, giving but the names and dates and a few 
characteristic quotations from the works of the 
poets and philosophers. 

FOURTH PERIOD 1. PERSIAN WARS, 500-479 B. C. 

15. Miltiades, the hero of Marathon, stands first. 
He had been a tyrant of one of the Greek cities, 
but at the time of the Persian invasion (490 B. C.) 
he was one of the generals in command of the 
Athenian army. Each of the ten generals had 
supreme command for one day in succession. The 
evils of such divided leadership at this crisis were 
clear. Aristides, who was one of the ten, said, 
when his day came: "I resign my command to 
Miltiades. He is the best general." Whereupon 
the others followed his example, giving Miltiades 
all the responsibility and, as it happened, the un- 
divided glory of Marathon. 

" Perhaps no battle ever reflected more luster 



The Men of Greater Greece. 151 

upon a successful commander than that of Mara- 
thon on Hiltiades." "He was the instrument in 
beating back the mighty enterprise for destroying 
the liberties of Europe. This fact has made his 
name more familiar for Englishmen, and, perhaps, 
for nearly all the Aryan nations, than that of any 
other Greek statesman or general." "He reached 
a pre-eminence such as no Athenian had reached 
before him ; and he seems to have been somewhat 
dizzied by the height on which he stood." "It 
would have been fortunate for his glory if he had 
died on the field of Marathon. The remainder of 
his life is a rapid and melancholy descent from 
the pinnacle of glory to an ignominious death." 
He died of wounds received in an unsuccessful at- 
tack upon Paros, an island against which he per- 
suaded the Athenians to send a fleet. He was 
fined fifty talents by the Athenians. His son Cimon 
discharged the debt, after his father's death. 

16. Xerxes, King of Persia, led his own enor- 
mous army into Greece (480 B. C.) to avenge the 
defeat of Marathon. He ruled Persia twenty 
years (485-465 B. C), and is probably the Ahasu- 
erus of the Book of Esther. He was " the most 
powerful monarch of his time." 
ruling with absolute authority an 
empire as large as Europe. "His 



anaxagoras. 

500-428 B. C. 

A Philosplier. 



heart was corrupted by the possession of unlim- 
ited power, and by the abject adulation com- 
monly bestowed on Eastern sovereigns." He 
was "indolent, luxurious, and voluptuous." "In 



152 Outline History of Greece. 

person he was the tallest and handsomest man 
amid the vast hosts which he led against Greece, 
but there was nothing in his mind to correspond 
to this fair exterior." His character was marked 
by "faint-hearted timidity and childish vanity." 

Xerxes is said to have written a letter to Mount 
Athos, in which he commanded it "not to put 
stones in the way of his workmen, or he would 
cut it down and throw it into the sea." Because 
the waves of the Hellespont shattered the bridge 
of boats which he had constructed for his army 
he ordered the waters to be scourged with rods. 
Reviewing his immense army, he burst into tears 
at the reflection that "in a hundred years not 
one man of the millions would be alive." 

After Xerxes attempted in vain to corrupt Le- 
onidas, he imperiously commanded him to give up 
his arms. Leonidas replied : " Let Xerxes come 
and take them." After the defeat of his fleet at 
Salamis the king returned to Asia in disgust, 
leaving Mardonius to end the war. 

17. Leonidas, the hero of Thermopylae (480 
B. C.), was one of the two kings of Sparta. With 
a handful of soldiers he held the narrow pass for 
several days against the whole power of Persia. 
Wlien Greek treachery exposed his rear to the 
enemy he remained at his post and died with his 
soldiers. Leonidas and his " three hundred " com- 
rades were slain only after the slaughter of vast 
numbers of their enemies. When Leonidas was 
told that the Persians were so numerous that their 



The Men of Greater Greece. 153 

very darts would darken the sun, he replied: 
"Then we shall fight in the shade." 

Leonidas was renowned for his "invincible 
courage, patriotic devotion, and noble and tragical 
end." Of him Simonides says: "Leonidas, the 
Spartan, in whose story a wealth of famous virtue 
ever lives." 

Professor Felton says : " The memory of Leoni- 
das and his three hundred haunts Thermopylae 
to-day as if they had trodden the narrow passage 
but yesterday." 

There was a law at Sparta which forbade her 
citizen-soldiers fleeing from battle under any cir- 
cumstances. Only two of the three hundred were 
absent from Thermopylae ; one was ill at a neigh- 
boring town; hearing of the battle he called for 
his arms, and, hastening to the pass, died fighting. 
The other could not reach the field, and so re- 
turned to Sparta alive. He was there shunned 
like a leper. At Platsea, the year afterward, he 
fought like a lion, throwing away his life in order 
to prove his courage to his countrymen. 

18. Themistocles fought at Marathon (490 B.C.), 
supervised the Athenian preparations for the 
second Persian war, and commanded the ships of 
Athens in the great naval battle of Sal amis. Born 
at Athens 514 B. C. Died in exile 449 B. C. 

Cox says : "He was the great statesman and 
leader to whom Athens owed her continued exist- 
ence and her splendid empire." 

Themistocles was " a sagacious statesman." In 



154 Outline History of Greece. 

" intuitive sagacity, unfailing invention, boldness 
in executing his plans, insight into the purposes 
of the enemy, and skill in thwarting them, he was 
one of the ablest statesmen in the ancient world." 
— Felton. " The cleverest man of his time." — 
Fyffe. He was, in fact, the man for the times. He 
saw that the Persians would repeat in force the 
attempt which had failed at Marathon. He saw, 
too, that Athens, though exposed to the earliest 
attacks of the enemy, could hope for no adequate 
protection from the other Greek States. Seeing 
these things clearly, he decided Jiat Athens must 
build a navy for her defense. He induced the 
people to adopt his plans, and then by bribing the 
Delphian Oracle led them to abandon Athens 
for the ships — "wooden walls" — which he had 
prepared. With the fleet he defeated Xerxes, and 
afterward by the same means made Athens the 
center of the Delian Confederacy. 

According to Plutarch the allied generals voted 
upon the question of personal merit in the Persian 
war. Each general cast two written votes, one 
for first honor, another for second. It was found 
that each leader had named himself for the for- 
mer, while the second w r as unanimously awarded 
to Themistocles. He received an olive crown 
from the allies, and the stern Spartans, little given 
to rewarding Athenian valor, gave him a beautiful 
chariot as a testimonal of their gratitude for their 
deliverance. 

After his wisdom had made Athens great and 



The Men of Greater Greece. 155 

prosperous, lie was shabbily treated. Doubtless 
ambitious, and somewhat boastful, he was hated 
by many citizens, and feared by Sparta. He was 
ostracized (471 B. C), and, according to one 
story, being accused of treachery went to Persia 
and offered his services to " the Great King " 
against Athens. Cox, the historian, has sifted all 
the evidence, and proves that the exile was not a 
traitor and did not deserve the slanders which have 
blackened his name. 

When Themistocles was a child his tutor had 
said : " Boy, thou wilt never be an ordinary per- 
son. Thou wilt be either a mighty blessing or a 
mighty curse to thy country." 

Themistocles one day remarked, laughingly, 
that his " son was greater than any man in 
Greece." "How is that?" asked a friend. The- 
mistocles replied, " The Athenians govern Greece, 
I command the Athenians, this boy's mother com- 
mands me, and this boy commands his mother." 

19. Pausanias shared with his uncle, Leonidas, 
the Spartan honors of the Persian wars. As com- 
mander-in-chief of the allied Greek armies he 
routed the Persian army at Plataea (479 B. C.) He 
was afterward accused of plotting to deliver the 
Greek States into the hands of Xerxes. He died 
in disgrace at Sparta, 471 B. C. 

Later in life he was " described as a selfish and 
sensual despot; but at Platsea he is the severe and 
high-minded Spartan who believes that the maj- 
esty of law has a power beyond that of irrespon- 



156 Outline History of Greece. 

sible tyrants." — Cox. The magnificent furniture 
and utensils which he found in the captured camp 
at PlataBa strongly impressed Pausanias; he had a 
meal prepared and served in the gorgeous Persian 
fashion; comparing it with his own simple Laco- 
nian fare, he " held up to the Greeks the folly of 
Xerxes, who, faring so sumptuously, had come to 
rob the Greeks of their sorry food." 

The power which came into the hands of Pausa- 
nias as conqueror of the Persians and regent of 
Sparta turned his head. He dreamed of making 
himself despotic lord of Greece, and offered to 
hold the country tributary to Xerxes. The Spar- 
tan Ephors discovered his treachery. To save 
himself he took refuge in the Temple of Minerva, 
from which it was not lawful to remove him by 
force. The entrance was, therefore, blocked up, 
his mother laying the first brick with her own 
hands, and the roof was taken off. When nearly 
dead from starvation and exposure he was brought 
out that his death might not pollute the temple. 

Pausanias was a stern and self-denying Spartan, 
whose wealth and power brought him to luxury 
and political ruin. 

20. Aristides lived at Athens at the same time 
with Themistocles. Both shared in the work of 
repelling the Persians at Marathon. After that 
battle Aristides was ostracized (483 B. C), but re- 
turned to help the city when it was attacked by 
Xerxes. Side by side with his rival he fought at 
Salamis, and at Platsea (479 B.C.) he commanded 



The Men of Greater Greece. 15 7 

the Athenian division of the army. He was of 
noble birth, and died 408 B. C. 

The Athenian leaders divided on the question 
of building a navy. Themistocles advocated a 
maritime policy ; Aristides opposed it. The for- 
mer prevailed ; the latter was ostracized. After 
his return (480 B. C.) he ceased to be a rival 
of Themistocles. Henceforth, until the banish- 
ment of the latter, they labored together to 
upbuild the Athenian State. 

The fleet which Themistocles had called into 
existence, and whose formation Aristides had ob- 
structed, proved to be the defense of the city and 
the chief prop of her later grandeur. Aristides 
accepted the situation, and made good use of the 
instrument which a wiser, if less scrupulous, states- 
man had devised. 

Aristides was a reformer. He opened to the 
poorer citizens the highest city offices, declaring 
that, as the w 7 hole body of the people had joined 
in resisting the Persians, none should be excluded 
from a share* in liberty, which was the fruit of the 
victory. 

Aristides w r as a man of such 
incorruptible virtue that he was 
called "the Just." "He was a 
true patriot, but was considered 

euripides. stubborn and impracticable." 

480-406 B. C. 

tl Our Euripides 

the Human." 



HERODOTUS. 

484-408 B. C. 

'The Father of 

History." 



Any Athenian might be " os- 
tracized" or banished if 6,000 cit- 
izens so desired. Each voter wrote upon a shell 



158 



Outline History of Greece. 



the name of the person whose exile he proposed. 
Once an ignorant man came to Aristides with a 
shell in his hand and asked him to write "Aris- 
tides " upon it. Aristides asked, a What harm 
has this person done you that you should wish to 
banish him ? " " No harm at all," answered the 
man, "only I am tired of always hearing him 
called 'the Just.'" 

When Aristides was acting as judge one of the 
parties thought to incite him against the other by 
declaring that the other had said and done injuri- 
ous things against Aristides. The judge replied, 
" Do not talk about that. Tell me only what 
harm he has done to thee; it is thy cause I am 
judging." He died very poor, and the State had 
to support his family. 



FOURTH P 
Persian 

Darius invades Greece 

Persian fleet destroyed — 
Second Persian invasion. . . 

Miltiades at Marathon 

Xerxes's invasion 


ERIOD 
Wars. 

... 492 
... 492 
... 490 
... 490 

... 480 


OUTLINES. No. I. 
500-479 B. C. 

Leonidas at Thermopylae . . . 

Tbemistocles at Salamis 

Pausanias at Piatasa 

Aristides at Plataea 

Victory at Mycale 


. 480 
.. 480 
.. 479 
.. 479 
.. 479 







II. ATHENIAN PERIOD, 479-404 B. C. 

All the great names of this period are directly 
connected with the history of Athens. Lysander, 
the only non-Athenian whose name we record, 
owes his sole eminence to his defeat of Athens at 
the close of the Peloponnesian war. Two names — 
Cimon and Pericles— cover the whole- history of 
the rise of Athens after the heroes of the Persian 



The Men of Greater Greece. 159 

war had disappeared. One name, Alcibiades, com- 
prises the whole history of her fall. 

21. Cimon (or Kimon), son of Miltiades (the 
hero of Marathon), was born 502 B. C, and 
died in Cyprus, 449 B. C. He was placed in 
command of the fleet through the influence of 
Aristides. 

Cimon was "generous, affable, magnificent." 
"The greatest commander of his 
time." The "idol of the Athe- 
nians, lively, frank, and courteous 



HIPPOCRATES 

460-357 B. C. 
A Famous Phy- 
sician. 



in his manner." He may be called "the last 
of the Greeks w T hose spirit and boldness de- 
feated the armies of the barbarians." He gained 
three victories over the Persians in one day, 
460 B. C. 

Cimon made himself "immensely popular by 
throwing open his gardens to the public, and 
keeping a table constantly laid for any one who 
chose to dine there." He distributed his great 
w r ealth freely among the poorer citizens, yet he 
was born and remained an aristocrat, regretting 
the existence of the democracy which he served. 
Cimon put the finishing touches upon the Persian 
war. He drove the Persian g irrisons out of the 
Greek cities of the islands and coasts of the 
^Egean Sea, and paved the way for the success of 
the Confederation of Delos. His honesty con- 
trasted with the treason of Pausanias and inclined 
the allies to join Athens rather than Sparta. He 
lived until 449 B. C, and was the rival of Pericles, 



160 Outline History of Greece. 

who championed the rights of the citizens as did 
Cimon the piivileges of his class— the Eupatrid 
nobility. 

22. Pericles has the most brilliant fame of all 
the Athenian leaders. His talents resembled 
those of Themistoeles, who was his early political 
guide. But the latter flourished when Athens 
was laying in toil and war the foundations of her 
empire ; Pericles lived in her brightest days, and 
directed with consummate sagacity the govern- 
ment which others had established. The " age of 
Pericles is considered the culminating period of 
the power and genius of Athens." He came into 
power about 469 B. C, and retained control of 
the policy of the city for forty years. He died 
of the plague (429 B. C.) in the year in which 
Plato was born. 

Pericles was of noble birth, but with the keen- 
ness of vision which places him in the first rank of 
statesmanship, with Themistoeles, he saw that the 
democracy of Athens was too well grounded to 
be overthrown. Where so much power was given 
to the whole body of citizens, good government 
could only spring from the education and eleva- 
tion of this whole body. It was this which Pericles 
perceived and to a great degree accomplished. 
" There was certainly never such a community in 
ancient times, probably none since, as the Athe- 
nian citizens in the age of Pericles." The educa- 
tion of the leader was of the best. In every de- 
partment of mental activity he had the power of 



The Men of Greater Greece. 161 

appreciation if not of execution. George Croly 
rightly ranked him when he wrote : 

" This was the ruler of the land 

When Athens was the land of fame ; 

This was the light that led the band 
When each was like a living flame; 

The center of earth's noblest ring — 

Of more thau men, the more than king." 

His administration closed with the inaugura- 
tion of the Peloponnesian war, which continued 
twenty-seven years, until the jealous Spartans 
established their supremacy in the place of that 
of Athens. 

Cox* enumerates the public works with which 
Pericles adorned the city, and explains the object 
of his policy : 

" He built the new theater, called the Odseum ; 
the Propylsea, the gigantic portals of the Acropolis, 
the little hill on which art of every kind achieved 
its highest triumphs; the Erechtheum and the 
mighty fabric of the Parthenon, the home of the 
virgin goddess, whose colossal image standing in 
front of the temple might be seen by the mariner 
as he doubled the Cape of Suninm. 

"The worshiper who passed within the massive 
walls of the Parthenon saw before him a statue 
of the goddess still more glorious than the one 
which stood without. It was the work of the 
great sculptor whose genius embodied in gold and 
ivory at Olympia the majesty of Zeus himself. 

* Greek Statesmen: Pericles. 
11 



132 Outline History of Greece. 

By the confession of those who were familiar with 
them throughout their lives, the genius of the 
sculptor has never achieved triumphs so transcend- 
ent as those of the chryselephantine* statues of 
Phidias. The impression left by these marvelous 
works on the mind of the beholders can never be 
felt by us. 

" If, again, it be impossible to realize the effect 
of these works as separate units, still less can we 
picture to ourselves the effects produced by them 
in groups or masses ; and still more by their color- 
ing. We may take the one small hillock, scarcely 
more than nine hundred feet in length and four 
hundred in breadth, known as the Athenian Acrop- 
olis. We may try to recall to our minds its 
ancient splendors; but do what we will we- shall 
not succeed completely in realizing the glory of 
the gorgeous assemblage of structures which 
graced the little piece of table-land on its sum- 
mit, of those superb portals and that majestic 
flight of steps by which the Pan-Athenaic pomp 
ascended to the Parthenon ; of the sculptures 
which almost lived and breathed on pediment and 
frieze and metope ; of the many series of sculpt- 
ured forms which lined every avenue, while far 

* These colossal statues, the most famous being that of 
Athena in the Parthenon and that of Zens at Olympus — the 
latter a world- wonder — were bnilt of wood and covered with 
plates of gold and ivory. Not one of them remains. They 
were the masterpieces of the sculptor Phidias, the friend of 
Pericles. 



The Men of Greater Greece. 163 

above all the brazen statue of Athena kept watch 
over the city. We have further to take into ac- 
count, so far as we can, the accessories of this 
marvelous scene, the brilliancy of sky and sun, 
the lustrous purity of the marble, the tints of 
gold and crimson and azure, which imparted depth 
of light and shade to the moldings and sculptures 
of its magnificent temples. 

"Pericles had a clearly defined aim in all the 
measures which he carried and proposed, and this 
aim was to surround the Athenians with a refine- 
ment, a culture, and a wealth of beauty such as 
should make them regard their city with an affec- 
tionate pride and stimulate them to put forth all 
their strength in her defense. The very fact that 
they had so much to lose by her downfall would 
nerve them to an unconquerable resolution in the 
hour of battle, and they would be conscious that 
they were fighting for the object of their enlight- 
ened love and not from the merely selfish instinct 
of the savage or the brute. It was, in truth, an 
ideal of polity such as, in some points, has at no 
other time and in no other country been realized ; 
and if we compare it with the state of things in 
which Spartans and even Corinthians found a dull 
and dogged satisfaction, it becomes astonishing 
indeed. The record of it has been preserved to 
us in all that survives of Athenian literature and 
Athenian art, and it is one from which the thinkers 
of every age may derive inestimable value." 

The population of Athens in the time of Peri- 



164 



Outline History of Greece. 



cles is estimated at 100,000. The larger part of 
the population was included within the circuit 
walls built by Themistocles. Two " long walls," 
four miles in length, connected the city with the 
perfect harbor of Pira3us, which was itself a pop- 
ulous and busy city, amply protected by fortifica- 
tions. A third long wall extended to the sea at 
Phalerum, thus securing two harbors for the city. 




PLAN OF ATHENS. 

Ccramicus, a section of the city divided into two parts by 
the wall. The outer Ceramicus contained the graves of the 
Athenians who were killed in battle. 

Areopagus, (" Mars' Hill "), a craggy knoll, on whose summit 
the city court was held. Paul the apostle was arraigned here 
as a "setter forth of strange gods; " and it was here, "stand- 
ing in the midst of Mars' Hill," that he preached to the men 
of Athens. 

Pnyx, a hill on whose slope was the Lema, or block of 
stone from which the orators spoke to the citizen assembly. 

llyssus, the little stream which wandered through the city. 

Acropolis, the city rock. 350 feet high. The first village 
was probably built on its summit. As the town grew around 
it the Acropolis became a fortress and a sacred inclosure. 
Here were the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, the Temple of 



The Men of Greater Greece. 165 

Victory, the brazen Colossus of Athena, and the Propylaea, 
or staircase and portal. 

1. Theater of Dionysus, a wooden stage and semicircular 
tiers of rock-hewn seats accommodating 20,000 people. Here 
all the great dramas of Greece were first performed. 

2. Probaby the Agora, or market-place. 

Of the personal qualities of Pericles much 
might be said. " He was celebrated for the per- 
fect nobleness of his character, his high-minded- 
ness, unselfishness, and patriotism." 

" His demeanor was characterized by a reserve 
bordering upon haughtiness." There is a striking 
contrast between his exclusiveness and the frank 
manner in which Cimon courted the crowd. 

" He was moderate in his counsels, and always 
opposed to extravagant plans of foreign conquest." 

" He was able to rule the people through his 
eloquence and his wisdom, and, above all, through 
the perfect nobleness of his character." 

" He was the first who committed his orations 
to writing that he might subject every sentence 
to the highest polish of which it was capable." 

" Nothing could exceed the power and beauty of 
his oratory." 

Pericles, on his death-bed, when consoled by 
his friends, who recounted his great successes, ex- 
claimed, " Ah, you have forgotten the most val- 
uable part of my character, and now the most 
pleasant to my mind, that none of my fellow-cit- 
izens have been compelled through any act of 
mine to put on a mourning robe." 



166 Outline History of Greece. 

Between the death of Pericles and the rise 
of Alcibiades two men, Cleon, " the leather- 
seller," and Nicias, the patrician, were rivals 
for the control of the Athenian democracy. 
Cleon was a blustering, impudent leader of the 
elements who opposed Pericles, one of a class now 
growing up at Athens whose strength lay in their 
power to work upon the feelings of the populace. 
Nicias, on the contrary, was " a man of exalted 
lineage and great wealth." He was generous, 
honest, and intensely religious. These qualities 
gained him popularity which he could have gained 
in no other way, for he was unenterprising, super- 
stitious, no orator, and an incompetent general. 
He led, unwillingly, the expedition against Syra- 
cuse, and was murdered there. 

Two military leaders, Demosthenes, of Ath- 
ens, and Brasidas, of Sparta, deserve more than 
a word of notice. Both served in the Pelopon- 
nesian war. It was Brasidas who laid the ax at 
the root of Athenian greatness by attacking 
with diplomacy and arms the Athenian tributary 
cities on the northern shore of the JEgean Sea. 
Pie was killed at Amphipolis (423 B. C), victo- 
rious over the Athenian Cleon. Demosthenes 
tried to limit Spartan influence to the Peloponne- 
sus by cutting off her communication with the 
countries north of the Gulf of Corinth. Pie capt- 
ured the Spartan army at Sphacteria, and took its 
soldiers to Athens as hostages. In 413 he was 
sent with re enforcements for Nicias at Syracuse, 



The Men of Greater Greece. 167 

and was there defeated, captured, and murdered. 
" He died, as he had lived, without a stain on his 
military reputation, the victim of the superstition 
and respectability of his colleague (Nicias)." 

23. What would otherwise have been the destiny 
of Athens is useless to inquire, but we may say with 
certainty that Alcibiades was her ruin. He was 
an orator who held the Athenian populace under 
complete control, a politician who carried his un- 
wise measures triumphantly against all the wisdom 
that the opposition could muster, and a commander 
who shattered the exultant navies of the Pelopon- 
nesus with the last feeble remnants of the Athe- 
nian fleet. That he was able no one will deny. 

Young, personally beautiful, endowed with 
wealth, wit, eloquence, and ambition, and gifted 
with a wonderful power to please, Alcibiades easily 
won his way to the heart of the popular assembly 
which ruled Athens. He had been the friend of 
Pericles, and was the favorite pupil of the philoso- 
pher Socrates. 

" His genius might have made him the glory of 
his native city, but was, in fact, the chief occasion 
of its ruin." He was the "very model of the 
Athenian man of fashion," except that he was said 
to be "utterly destitute of morality, both public 
and private." He squandered his wealth upon the 
outfit of his chariot teams for the Olympic games 
as an English " sporting lord " might waste his 
income on the Epsom races. The luxury of his 
dress and mode of life, his drunken frolics, and his 



168 Outline History of Greece. 

wild escapades furnished talk enough for a people 
who " spent their time in nothing else but either 
to tell or to hear some new thing." Once, it is 
said, he cut off the tail of his dog, that, as he re- 
marked, " the Athenians might have something to 
talk about " 

This wild and unscrupulous, but fascinating, man 
led his country to reopen the war with Sparta after 
the Peace of Nicias had provided for a truce for 
fifty years; he enticed them into the disastrous 
expedition against Sicily ; sold himself to Sparta 
and then to Persia, and yet retained so much 
popularity that the sentence against him was re- 
voked, and he was reinstated in command of all 
the forces of the country which he had done his 
utmost — at first through thoughtless personal am- 
bition, later from personal spite — to ruin. He 
was undoubtedly faithful to Athens after his re- 
turn ; but the citizens, naturally suspicious, deposed 
him again, because his fleet was defeated. 

Alcibiades's home was near the battle ground of 
iEgospotami, where Lysander defeated the Athe- 
nians (405 B. C), and he gave an ineffectual warn- 
ing to the generals. Had they heeded it they 
might have avoided the disaster. 

After the establishment of the tyranny of the 
Thirty, 404 B. C, he was condemned to banish- 
ment. Upon this he took refuge with Pharna- 
bazus, and was about to proceed to the court of 
Artaxerxes " when one night his house was sur- 
rounded by a band of armed men, and set on fire. 



The Men of Greater Gkeece. 169 

He rushed out, sword in hand, but fell, pierced 
with arrows." 

24. Lysander is the great Spartan name of the 
concluding period of the Peloponnesian war, as 
Brasidas was of its earlier years. He commanded 
the fleet which destroyed the last remnant of the 
Athenian navy at JEgospotami (405 B. C), and it 
was to him that Athens finally surrendered (404 
B. C). He placed the government of Athens in 
the hands of thirty men, who, because of their 
cruelty, are known as "the Thirty Tyrants." 

He was "a skillful leader and manager;" "a 
general of great ability ;" "a man to whom the 
shaping of government in the interest of oligar- 
chy was a task thoroughly congenial." "His 
ambition was boundless;" "his cruelty and du- 
plicity have greatly stained his character." 

He owed his success to his military ability and 
to his skill in winning the support of the Persians. 
Sparta was not a wealthy State, and the long war 
was a heavy drain upon her resources ; but by 
securing the friendship of Cyrus, the Persian 
satrap (governor) of Asia Minor, Lysander, opened 
a new source of revenue. Cyrus supplied the 
Spartans with bountiful means for two years. 
Lysander's term of office as admiral then expired. 
It was unlawful for a Spartan admiral to be re- 
elected, and it was feared that the recall of Ly- 
sander would end the alliance with Persia. A 
" nobody " was accordingly made commander of 
the fleet, with Lysander as his "private secretary." 



170 Outline History of Greece. 

With this humble title he performed his old du- 
ties, and really commanded, as before, until the 
end of the war. 

Lysander was more than a warrior. As the repre- 
sentative of Sparta he broke up the Athenian con- 
federacy, and set up new oligarchic governments 
in the island cities. He was a far-sighted states- 
man, and after the capture of Athens he refused 
to grant the wish of his allies, which was to de- 
stroy the city ; for he saw that the greatness of 
Sparta, which was just beginning, would arouse 
the jealousy of Thebes, and ultimately lead to a 
war in which Athens might be a welcome ally of 
Sparta. The event proved the wisdom of his se- 
vere, but not extreme, course. " While the arse- 
nals were dismantled and the unfinished ships in 
the docks burnt, the demolition of the long walls 
was begun to the music of flute-players and the 
measured movements of dancing women. Twelve 
ships only were left in the desolate haven of 
Piraeus; and so began, according to Spartan 
phrase, the first day of freedom for Hellas." 



FOURTH PERIOD 
Athens Leads. 

Cimon flourished 460 

Pericles flourished 450 


OUTLINES, No. 2. 
479-41M B. C. 

Alcibiades flourished 

Expedition to Sicily 

Battle of iEgospotami 

Lysander takes Athens — 
Death of Alcibiades 


... 420 
... 415l 
. . . 405j 
... 404 
... 404 


Phidias flourished 450 

Peloponnesian war begins... 431 
Plague in Athens. . .... 4 : '0 





III. SPARTAN PERIOD, 404-371 B. C. 

Although we have now come to the time when 
the power of Sparta extends throughout Greece, 



The Men of Greater Greece. 171 

we shall not find an array of great names either 
in that city or in any of its dependencies. The 

Spartan system imposed rigid rules upon the citi- 
zens, neglected education, and made every ele- 
ment in the State contribute to the military power. 
Moreover, the oligarchic form of the govern- 
ment excluded all men beyond a limited number 
from any share in public affairs. In this period, 
therefore, we must find the subjects of our biog- 
raphy among the subdued Athenians rather than 
at regnant Sparta. 

25. Thrasvbulus was one of the generals who 
served Athens near the close of the Peloponnesian 
war. He was brave and patriotic, "a man of en- 
terprising spirit, full of vigor and moral stamina." 
Exiled from his city, with many others, during the 
rule of the "Thirty Tyrants," he collected a bund 
of patriots like himself, and with them surpri-ed 
and captured the Piraeus and threatened Athens. 
Sparta intervened to s:ive the Tyrants, but the 
rule of the thirty was over, and the democracy, 
slightly modified and shorn of some of its author- 
ity, was re-established. Thrasvbulus was vener- 
ated by his countrymen as one of their most heroic 
souls. 

26. Xenophon (b. 444 B. C. ; d. 354 B. C.) was 
a man of varied excellencies. As an Athenian 
soldier he marched to Babylon in the army of 
Cyrus the younger; as a general he led the ad- 
venturous " Ten Thousand " on their memorable 
retreat after the battle of Cunaxa ; and as an 



172 Outline History of Greece. 

historian he wrote the Anabasis, a modest ac- 
count of the homeward journey of the "Ten 
Thousand," and the Hellenica, a history of Greece. 

After the death of Cyrus the Grecian leaders 
were called together by the Persians, as if for a 
conference, and then treacherously slain. Left 
without leaders, the Greeks would have perished 
hut for the bravery, persistence, and genius of 
Xenophon. The retreat of the ten thousand is 
characterized as "one of the most wonderful 
marches of the world." 

Upon his return Xenophon devoted himself to 
literary pursuits. Besides the Hellenica he wrote 
the Cyropcedia, called " the first historical ro- 
mance," the Memorabilia, and the Symposium. 

Xenophon was one of the noted disciples of the 
philosopher Socrates. It is related that the latter 
was attracted by the youthful beauty of Xeno- 
phon, and one day stopped him in the city street, 
inquiring where the best things of life might be 
bought. The young man hesitated for an answer, 
and Socrates asked where he mi^ht find ^oc-d ami 
honest men. Again Xenophon was at a loss, and 
the philosopher said : " Follow me and learn ! " 

As a writer he was called the "Attic bee " from 
the sweetness and graceful style of his narrative. 
"The graces dictated his language, and the god- 
dess of persuasion dwelt on his lips." "The ge- 
nius of Xenophon was not of the highest order; 
it was practical rather than speculative .; but he is 
distinguished for his good sense, his moderate 



The Men of Greater Greece. 173 

views, his humane temper, and his earnest 

piety/' 

He angered his countrymen by serving: for a 
time in the army of Sparta ; being obliged to leave 
Athens he accepted the hospitalities of Sparta, 
and spent the closing years of a beneficent and 
happy life at his country house in Elis. Here he 
lived the life of a country gentleman, taking great 
delight in rural pursuits and indulging his fond- 
ness for dogs and horses. 

27. Socrates, the Athenian philosopher, was born 
468 B. C, and died 399 B. C. Although he was 
a brave soldier in three wars, and at one time a 
senator, his reputation rests entirely upon his 
powers as a thinker. He was poor in purse and 
ugly in person, but the richest citizens of Athens 
were proud to have his company, and her most 
cultivated men were his disciples. Cicero called 
him " the father of philosophy/' He was con- 
demned to death on a ridiculous charge " of cor- 
rupting the youth and introducing new deities." 
" He led the mind to a knowledge of the deity, the 
creator of the universe, and to a belief of a future 
state of rewards and punishments." During his 
trial he was asked to tell why he should not be 
punished. He replied that the city ought rather to 
support him in comfort for the rest of his life. 

The thirty days which he spent in prison before 
his execution were occupied in conversations with 
his friends upon the great truths of life. He 
might easily have escaped, and was urged to do so, 



174 Outline History of Greece. 

but he declined to break the laws now after observ- 
ing them for seventy years. One of his disciples 
said to him, " How sad is it that thou shouldest die 
innocent ! " Socrates replied, with a smile, " What ! 
would you have me die guilty ? " On the day 
appointed for the execution he drank without 
emotion the hemlock poison which was given him. 
This scene in the Athenian cell, the master comfort- 
ing his weeping friends, is the brightest moral 
spectacle in heathen history. 

Xenophon said of Socrates, " He was not only 
the best of men, but the most favored of the 
gods." The Delphic Oracle pronounced him the 
wisest of mankind; "I know only thN," he said, 
"that what I know is nothing." lie taught with- 
out fee or reward, not lecturing in a school as 
did some of his successors, but frequenting the 
busiest parts of the city, and conversing with 
laborers, tradesmen, politicians, and generals. 
His plain face and shabby dress must have been 
the commonest of sights in the great city. He 
needed no formal introduction, but addressed 
himself to whomsoever he pleased. Instead of 
doing all the talking himself, he reached his point 
and impressed his lesson by a series of keenly put 
questions by which his opponent found himself 
led to the wished-for conclusion. 

Socrates was noted for his brilliant sayings, 
his original mother-wit, like that which Dr. 
Johnson showered on his London acquaintances, 
and Benjamin Franklin made familiar to Ameri- 



The Men of Greater Greece. 175 

cans. Some one has said Socrates was what the 
country people would call "an old one." Em- 
erson said of his personality that it was "the 
coincidence in one ugly body of the keen street 
and market debater with the sweetest saint 
known to any history at that time." Another 
says, "His uninspired wisdom makes the nearest 
approach to the divine morality of the Gospel." 
"Just as he was about to drink the fatal hemlock 
he gave utterance to the evangelical principle, 
that ' it is better to forgive injuries than avenge 
them.' The kindness and humanity of the 
Christian faith found an echo in the Grecian 
heart." — Felton. 

Socrates wrote nothing, so far as we have 
record ; but he was fortunate in having Plato 
(born 429 B. C, died 348 B. C.) for a friend and 
pupil. The latter was one of the rich and brill- 
iant youths whom the staff of the master beck- 
oned from war and statesmanship and pointed 
to thought and study. After traveling in 
foreign lands, and studying other philosophical 
systems, Plato settled at Athens, and taught 
philosophy in the grove of the Academy. He 
wrote much, and his master Socrates has a prom- 
inent place in his books. Many of them are in 
the form of dialogues, in which Socrates discusses 
weighty subjects with his disciples or opponents. 
In these dialogues Plato clothes the Socratic 
ideas in his own language, often interweaving his 
own thoughts and speculations. He wrote, among 



176 Outline History of Greece. 

other things, on the immortality of the soul, and 
on a model Republic. Fisher says, Ci More specu- 
lative than Socrates, Plato, from the wide range 
of his discussions, from their poetic spirit as well 
as their depth of thought, not less than their 
beauty of style, is one of the most instructive and 
inspiring of all authors. No other heathen writer 
presents so many points of affinity with Christian 
teaching." 

In Representative Men Emerson takes Plato as 
the type of the philosopher. He finds in him the 
source of nearly all the brilliant things which the 
world has heard for two thousand years. He 
says: " Out of Plato come all things that are still 
written or debated among men of thought." "He 
is the arrival of accuracy and intelligence " in 
learning. As Omar said of the Koran, so Emer- 
son says of Plato, " Burn the libraries; for their 
value is in this book." 



FOURTH PERIOD OUTLINES, NO. 3. 
Sparta Leads. 401-371 B. C. 

The thirty deposed 403 I Socrates dies 399 

Thrasybulus victorious 402 | Lotu? walls rebuilt 394 

Cyrus'slain 401 Peace of Antalcidas 387 

Xenophon's achievement 400 | Seizure of Cadmea 383 



IV. THEBAN PERIOD, 371-361 B. C. 

The supremacy which the city of Thebes main- 
tained for ten years not only among the Boeotian 
cities, but over Sparta and nearly the whole of 
Hellas, was due most of all to the .purity and 
patriotism of two men. 



* The Men of Greater Greece. 177 

28. Pelopidas, the first of these, belonged to a 
noble Theban family, and did for his city what 
Thrasybulus had done for Athens. The Spartans, 
who used their power in rough and despotic in- 
vasions of the rights of other States, surprised the 
Thebans in time of peace and placed a garrison in 
the Cadmea, their ancient citadel. The idea of a 
foreign troop in their fortress was intolerable to 
the patriots of Thebes, and the noblest of them — ■ 
Pelopidas — formed a plot for their deliverance. 
With a few friends, fellow-exiles at Athens, he 
entered Thebes in disguise, killed the weak-spirited 
rulers of the city, and roused the citizens against 
the Spartans. The Cadmea withstood a long 
siege, but was at last obliged to surrender. In 
the war which followed Pelopidas won one of the 
first battles, defeating a Spartan army in fair field, 
almost the first time the matchless military power 
of Lacedsemon had failed to conquer. He was a 
brilliant general and a liberal and wise ruler. 

Pelopidas was distinguished for integrity and 
uprightness. " He never engaged an enemy with- 
out obtaining the advantage." His " warm and 
generous heart was irresistibly attracted by every- 
thing great and noble, and hence he was ready to 
form a close and intimate friendship with Epami- 
nondas, who was several years older than himself, 
and of a still loftier character." 

29. Epaminondas was the intimate friend of Pe- 
lopidas, and with him founded and extended 

the influence of Thebes. He was a soldier whose 
12 



178 Outline History of Greece. 

success was due not so much to personal bravery 
as to skill in military tactics and organization. 
He made great innovations in the art of war, and 
administered repeated defeats to the Spartans, 
heretofore unequaled in the profession of arms. 
By massing his troops in solid columns and strik- 
ing the enemy at a vulnerable point he won his 
victories. 

" His purity of character was 
still more admirable than his 
military genius." " His love of 
truth was so great that he never 
disgraced himself by falsehood." 
Cicero calls Epaminondas " the 
greatest man Greece ever pro- 



ARISTOPHANES. 

444-380 B C. 
Comic Dramqt^t,. 



ARISTOTLE. 

384-322 B. C. 

Founder of Modern 

Science. 

Tutor of Alexander 

the Great. 



duced." He resembles the American Washing- 
ton more than any other person in history. 

Smith says : " Though eloquent, he was discreet; 
though poor, he was neither avaricious nor cor- 
rupt; though naturally firm and courageous, he 
was a stranger to personal ambition, and scorned 
the little arts by which popularity is too often 
courted." 

" Sprung from the ancient Spartans, the children 
of the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus, this illus- 
trious Theban had attained an eminence in art 
and science very rarely maintained by his country- 
men." — Cox. 

Of Epaminondas it is said that he was called 
to answer for the crime of retaining: his command 
beyond the legal term; to disgrace him he was 



The Men of Greater Greece. 179 

chosen city scavenger. He accepted the office, 
saying, "If the office will not honor me I will 
honor the office. " 

The battle of Man tinea, in which Thebes again 
defeated Sparta, was the last victory of Epaminon- 
das. A javelin pierced his breast in the moment 
of success, and his wounded person became the 
object of a fierce contest between friend and foe. 
His countrymen at length bore him from the field. 
Epaminondas, though in death agony, thought only 
of Thebes, and when informed that his troops 
had conquered, he said, " Then all is well," and 
drawing the spear-head from the wound died 
immediately. 

" It is notable that before his day, and after his 
death, Thebes was always in subjection to some 
other city, but while he directed her councils and 
armies she was at the head of Greece." 



FOURTH PERIOD OUTLINES, NO. 4. 

Thebes Leads. 371-361 B. C. 

Battle of Leuctra 371 

Pelopiclas and Persia 367 

Aristotle flourished 366 



Epaminondas died 362 

^Eschines flourished 362 

Asresilaus died 361 



V. MACEDOX LEADS, 361-146 B. C. 

The period of two hundred years in which the 
extra-Greek kingdom of Macedonheld the leader- 
ship of the Hellenic countries is an age of decay. 
Macedon and the countries to which Greek influ- 
ences had extended seem to have monopolized the 
vigor and virility of genius of which we have 



ISO Outline History of Greece. 

looked to Athens, Thebes, and Sparta for the finest 
examples. The eminent men of this time are the 
soldier-kin ^s of Macedon and the few Greeks who 
dared to head the opposition against their in- 
trigues and invasions. In this period Greeks and 
Romans come in contact, and at its close Greece 
is a dependency of Rome. 

30. Philip* was the King of Macedon (359-336 
B.C.) who by force of arms and skill of diplomacy 
made the Hellenes accept Macedonia as a Grecian 
State and himself as the Greek commander-in-chief 
in the war against Persia. He subdued Athens and 
Thebes at Chaeronea (338 B. C). Here-organized 
the army on Tlieban models, taking a leaf from 
the text-book of Epaminondas, whom he had 
known and admired. 

No Greek general won fame by opposition to 
the Macedonians. The quality of the Greek troops 
had deteriorated, and the soldiers now served for 
money rather than for love of country. They were 
poorly armed and commanded, and Philip's pha- 
lanx easily plowed its way through their yielding 
ranks. With such troops no commander could 
have succeeded. 

31. The only man in Athens who made a spirited 
attempt to save her was the orator Demosthenes 
(383-322 B. C.). "He was the only man worthy 
of Athens in her best days." " It appears that he 
was nervous, had an impediment in his speech, and 

* For a more extended notice of Philip's personal qualities, 
see p. 100. 



The Men of Greater Greece. 181 

an ugly habit of shrugging his shoulders, all of 
which defects he overcame entirely by his own 
efforts, and was rewarded for the pains he took 
by becoming the greatest orator and one of the 
first statesmen of his times." "He was the only 
person who seemed to realize the importance of 
making a firm stand against Philip, and opposing 
to the last his ambitious plans." 

Professor Curteis* says : " Of what Philip was 
we already have some notion. Let us try to im- 
agine his great antagonist, and that not as he was 
in the prime of his powers, when Athens recog- 
nized at last her greatest citizen, but rather as 
when he arose for the first time to address the 
Athenian assembly. . . . He was only half an 
Athenian, as his enemies seldom forgot to remind 
him. . . . Moreover, partly from nature, partly 
from circumstances, he was singularly un-Athe- 
nian. He was a pale, shy, awkward young man, 
with a thin voice and faulty intonation — very poor 
company for gay Athenian gentlemen. Hence 
he was in youth a solitary — and a solitary soured 
by ill treatment : for his father died when he was 
only seven years old and his guardians squandered 
his property. But misfortune proved a good school- 
mistress. From an early age he set himself to cor- 
rect the faults of nature, that he might be able, 
when the time came, to bring the law to bear 
upon the guardians who had ruined him. He 
mastered the ideas of Solon and Plato. He knew 
* Rise of the Macedonian Empire, p. 50. 



182 Outline History of Greece. 

Thucydides almost by heart, and is said to have 
written out his history eight times. He studied 
under Isaios, and watched and imitated Isocra- 
tes. He condescended to learn dignity, action, 
and even play of features from actors on the 
stage. He declaimed aloud, it is said, with peb- 
bles in his mouth, or amid the roar of waves upon 
the shore, to improve and strengthen his voice. 
He would march up-hill while repeating some 
speech, to open and fortify his lungs. In short, no 
trouble was too great if he might attain the great 
object of his ambition, the power of persuasive 
speaking. And by dint of perseverance he did 
slowly but surely attain it, at first speaking against 
the whole current of Athenian feeling, and to al- 
most unsympathetic ears, but little by little com- 
manding attention, respect, admiration, and finally 
enthusiastic assent. At last, though unhappily too 
late, the policy of Demosthenes became the policy 
of Athens." 

Many stories are told of the way in which De- 
mosthenes exercised his powers of speech. Once, 
in attacking JEschines, a rival orator, by a 
change of the accent in a word he lured his 
auditors into an apparent condemnation of his ad- 
versary. This translation gives the point of the 
story: "I call thee," says the orator, "the hire- 
ling, first of Philip, and now of Alexander; and 
all these present are of the same opinion. Ask 
them ; but no, I will ask them myself. Athe- 
nians, is iEschines the mercenary (mis'thotos) or 



The Mex of Greater Greece. 183 

friend of Alexander ? " He had purposely mis- 
placed the accent, knowing that the sensitive 
Athenians would set him right. " Mercenary! 
mercenary ! " (" Mist kotos 7 misthotos' ! " ) they 
cried in chorus, and, turning quickly to iEschines, 
the orator asks in triumph, " Dost thou hear 
what they say of thee ?" 

When this same iEschines once repeated a 
speech of his own and one of Demosthenes, his 
own was much applauded, but that of Demosthe- 
nes applauded much more. " Ah," said the gener- 
ous JEschines, "how would you have felt had you 
heard the lion himself ? " 

It was into the Philippics — denunciations of the 
Macedonian king — that Demosthenes threw him- 
self with the greatest vigor. These speeches, 
twelve in number, were delivered between 352 
B. C. and 340 B. C. Ancient and modern critics 
concur in the opinion that his Oration on the 
Crown is the most perfect specimen of human 
eloquence. 

32. Alexander,* surnamed "the Great," succeed- 
ed his murdered father, Philip, as King of Mace- 
donia (336 B. C); was accepted by the Greeks to 
lead the expedition against Darius, King of Per- 
sia; punished the revolting The bans (335 B. C.) ; 
invaded Asia Minor (334 B. C.) ; set out for Per- 
sia, conquering Egypt and Syria on the way (332 
B. C); invaded Central Asia and India (327 

* For a more extended notice of Alexander's characteristics, 
see pages 103, 109. 



184 Outline History of Greece. 

B. C); married many wives, adopted Persian 
dress and manners, claimed adoration as a god, 
and died at Babylon, 323 B. C, when only thirty- 
three years old, yet master of the whole eastern 
world, and with power and ambition sufficient to 
conquer Carthage, Rome, and the West, had his 
life been spared. As a boy Alexander showed his 
royal mind and body. He was a favorite of his 
famous teacher, Aristotle, and a victor in every 
contest of athletics, music, and military skill. 
Homer was his chief delight, and his mind was 
open to the graces of Pindar's beautiful odes. 
When, in his boyhood, the news was brought of 
a battle won by his father, Alexander appeared 
melancholy, and said to his playmates: " My fa- 
ther will accomplish every thing, and leave noth- 
ing for me to do." 

Alexander's conquests were greater in extent 
than those of Hannibal, Caesar, Napoleon, or any 
other great warrior. He is credited with sighing 
that " there were no more worlds left to con- 
quer." The magnitude of his victories — half a 
million men put to flight by forty thousand, and a 
territory equal to the whole of the United States 
subjected by the army of a country no larger than 
the State of Maine — turned his head. From a 
frank and high-minded youth he became a pas- 
sionate, suspicious Eastern despot, the murderer of 
his best friends and most trusted generals. His 
greatest service to the world was that he and his 
successors spread the high grade language and 



The Men op Greater Greece. 185 

ideas of Greece over the countries where Chris- 
tianity was soon to be born, thus preparing chan- 
nels for distributing the Gospel. 

Alexander was especially devoted to his mother, 
Olympias. When one of his generals wrote a 
long complaint against her the great commander 
read the letter with a smile, saying, " Antipater 
does not know that one tear shed by a mother 
will blot out ten letters like this." 

33. Antipater was the Macedonian general 
whom Alexander left behind him as governor of 
Greece during his absence in the far East. He 
was a man of culture and ability, but his most 
noted characteristic was his fidelity to his master. 
It was no light task with which he was intrusted. 
Alexander had gone upon an expedition which 
many thought foolhardv. He took with him his 
best soldiers and commanders, leaving Antipater 
to maintain order in the Greek States, most of 
which had yielded only by compulsion, and one of 
which, Sparta, was still free. Antipater suppressed 
the Spartan opposition, and kept Greece tranquil 
until the death of Alexander. Then Demos- 
thenes succeeded in rousing Athens to revolt. 
Antipater was besieged at Lamia and almost 
overcome, but fortune turned and the Macedonian 
put down the rebellion (322 B. C). Antipater 
was made governor of all Alexander's possessions 
in Europe, and died 319 B. C, in the eightieth 
year of his age. It is related that Alexander 
paid this tribute to the fidelity of his general: aris- 



186 Outline History of Greece. 

ing from his couch one morning, lie said, " I have 
slept well, for Antipater was awake." 



EUCLID. 

323-283 B. C. 

Father of Modern Geometry. 



MENANDEH. 

342-291 B. C. 
Writer of Comic Plays. 



34. Pyrrhus was a King of Epirus, and a great 
warrior. He succeeded in making himself master 
of Macedonia, and was led bv his adventurous 
spirit upon a number of important expeditions. 
In his time Rome had grown to such power that 
the Greek cities of lower Italy — Great Greece — 
were beginning to fear her. The people of Taren- 
tum invited Pyrrhus, then the greatest warrior of 
Greece, to cross the Adriatic and help them 
against Rome. The king accepted the invitation, 
invaded Italy, 280 B. G, and fought the Romans 
in two battles. His war elephants, the first seen 
in Italy, won him the day, but his losses were so 
great that Pyrrhus said, " Another such victory 
and I am undone." He greatly admired the 
simplicity and virtue of the Romans, and did not 
press the war against them. Crossing to Sicily 
he won several cities from the Carthaginians. 
Returning to his kingdom, he headed an unsuc- 
cessful attack upon Sparta, and was killed at 
Argos (272 B. C.) by a woman, who threw a tile 
on his head from her house-top. 



THEOCRITUS. 
320-272 B. C 
Pastoral Poet. 



ARCHIMEDES. 

287-212 B. C 

Mechanical Engineer. 



The Men of Greater Greece. 187 

35. Aratus was the main support of the Achaean 
League which certain Greek States formed to 
limit the Macedonian power. He was born at 
Sicyon, near Corinth, but in a revolution there 
his father, Clinias, was killed and he, a boy of 
seven, became an exile. As the young Demos. 
thenes trained his voice to enable him to conduct 
the prosecution of his dishonest guardians, so 
Aratus trained his bodily powers to make him- 
self a leader of men. When only twenty he 
repeated the deed of the Athenian Tiirasybulus 
and the Theban Pelopidas. Heading a band of 
exiles like himself, he seized his native city, 
drove out the tyrant, and induced the citizens to 
join the Achaean League. He was accepted by 
the Achaeans as their leader, and led them in a 
career of prosperity, the great city of Corinth 
being among those won from the Macedonians. 
In fact, the League became so powerful that the 
^Etolian, another league organized for the same 
patriotic purpose, was. moved by jealousy to at- 
tack the Achaeans. Aratus called in the aid of 
Macedonia against them. He was led to this 
move by the instinct of self-preservation, though 
it was fatal to the liberties of Greece. Aratus 
died 213 B. C, and was remembered as a pure 
and ardent patriot. 

36. Philopoemen was the great general, as Ara- 
tus was the leading statesman, of the Achaean 
League. He was born in Arcadia (253 B. C), 
and, as soon as he was able to bear arms, distin- 



1S8 



Outline History of Greece. 



guished himself in battle with the Spartans. He 
was made leader of the cavalry and, later, of all 
the forces of the Achaean League, which he 
finally induced Sparta to join. He was captured 
in battle by the Messenians and put to death (183 
13. C). For forty years he was prominent in the 
league, yet he never lost his popularity, and never 
stooped to a dishonest act. His bravery and firm- 
ness, unusual in that age, won for him the title, 
"the last of the Greeks." 



FOURTH PERIOD OUTLINES, No. 5. 
361-146 B. C. 

Alexander dies 323 

Antipater master 322 

Pyrrhus the brave 272 

Aratus, of kt the League" — 218 

Philopoemen, " the last " . . . . 183 



Philip made king 359 

Phocians seize Delphi 357 

Demosthenes's Philippics 352 

Plato dies 347 

Alexander made king 336 



Memory 
Outline. 



0. C I\ P. C. H. L. A. A. J. D. S. P. C 

15 Mi. 16 Xe. J7 Le. 18 Th. 19 Pa. 20 Av. 21 Ci. 22 Pe. 23 Al. 
24 Lv. 25 Th. 26 Xe. 27 So. 28 Pe. 29 Ep. 30 Ph. 31 De. 32 AI. 
33 An. 34 Py. 35 Ar. 36 Ph. 

JE. P. A. JE. P. S. An. He. Eu. Hi. Ar. An Eu. Me. 
Th. Ar. 




The Men of Later Greece. 189 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE MEN OF LATER GREECE. 

(746 B. C, 1838 A. D.) 

After " the last of the Greeks " the race pro- 
duced few great men for two thousand years. The 
country remained for several centuries the " school 
of Rome," and through Rome of the whole world. 
Christianity was preached in the Greek cities, and 
the old religion died away. A Roman emperor, 
fascinated with the culture of the Hellenes, left 
the imperial city on the Tiber and founded a New 
Rome and an Eastern Empire at Byzantium (Con- 
stantinople), on the Bosphorus. In this capital the 
influences of Greek education and art existed for 
a thousand years. They were so strong that the 
" New Roman " Empire lost its name and took 
another — the " Greek " Empire. The rise *of the 
Mohammedan power in the Middle Ages over- 
whelmed the city and its subject lands in Europe. 
The Turks, cruel, passionate, tyrannical, became 
masters of the Greek countries, and held them till 
1829, when the people of Greece revolted, and 
with European help regained their independence. 
In this long period the only names of prominence 
are those of foreigners in Greece, teachers and 
rulers. 



190 Outline History of Greece. 

fifth period. subject greece, 146 b. c- 

1829 A. D. 

37. Mummius was a Roman general, a rude, un- 
lettered military leader. As consul of Rome (146 
B. C.) lie undertook the war with the Greek 
States and brought it to a close. Corinth was the 
chief sufferer from his victory. He plundered the 
city of the rich treasures of art which had been 
gathered there, and .packed them off to Rome. 
How little he knew their value may be judged 
from his instructions to the contractors who 
shipped the precious statues: "If any are lost or 
broken you must replace them with new ones." As 
if a Roman shipping-agent could supply duplicate 
sculptures by Phidias and Praxiteles ! 

The campaign of Mummius put an end to the 
nominal independence of Greece. The country 
was annexed to Macedonia, which 
had been for twenty years a province 
of Rome. The next step made Greece 



POLYBIUS. 

204-122. 
Historian. 



a separate province under the name of Achaia. 

38. Paul, the "Saul of Tarsus" who was con- 
verted to the faith of Christ at Damascus, and 
spent a long life in his service. He was a Jew, 
born at Tarsus, a Greek city in Asia Minor, and a 
master of the Greek language. On his first mis- 
sionary journey he preached the Gospel in Cyprus 
and the Greek towns of southern Asia Minor. On 
his second tour he traveled and preached through 
north-western Asia Minor, crossed by sea to Mace- 



The Men of Later Greece. 191 

donia, where he founded churches in Philippi, 
Thessalonica, and Berea, In Greece itself he pro- 
claimed the "Unknown God" at Athens (49 A.D.), 
and upbraided the loose Corinthians, returning by 
sea to Jerusalem with a brief stay at Ephesus. 
The third missionary route covered nearly the 
same grounds as its immediate predecessor, and 
the fourth touched at only a few Greek cities, for 
the apostle was on his way to Rome. It was by 
the labors of this famous missionary that Chris- 
tianity was brought to the minds of the Greeks. 
mTTT4DntI - 39. Justinian is the most famous 

PLUlAliCU. 

50-1^5 a. d. name in the long list of sovereigns 
Biographer. ] w ^ mled ^ Byzantium as « G reek 

emperors." He was born in Asia Minor (483 
A. D.) of obscure parents, but being educated at 
Byzantium he attracted the attention of the Em- 
peror Justin, who made him his adopted son and 
heir. His- reign had features of especial brill- 
iance. His generals, Belisarius and Narses, con- 
quered Italy and Northern Africa from the Goths 
and Vandals, who had supplanted the Roman 
power in those countries. He introduced new 
industries into Europe, including the rearing of 
silk- worms, built cities, and founded the famous 
Church of St. Sophia at Constantinople. The 
greatest work of Justinian's reign, however, was 
the compilation of the laws of Rome, which have 
come down to us as the Institutes of Justinian, and 
which lie at the foundation of the laws of most of 
the European nations. Justinian persecuted the 



192 Outline History of Greece. 

Jews and the heathen philosophers with the same 
intolerant spirit that his predecessors had shown 
against the Christians. 

During the period of Turkish supremacy the 
life and beauty of the Greeks was marred. For 
almost four centuries Europe heard nothing of 
them except their sufferings, or the wars which 
Venice and the Turks were waging over the dis- 
position of their old home. But the war of lib- 
eration (1821-1829) brought out Bozzaris, Can- 
aris and Miaulis, patriots worthy of the best days 
of Hellas. 



FIFTH PERIOD OUTLINES, No. 6. 
146 B. C.-1829 A. D. 

Mummius captured Corinth 146 B. C. 

Paul visited Corinth 54 A. D. 

Byzantium, the Roman capital 33D A. D. 

Justinian died 565 A. D. 

Mohammed II. took Byzantium 1453 A. D. 

Revolt of Greeks 1821 A. D. 

Battle of Navarino 1827 A. D. 



MODERN PERIOD. LIBERATED GREECE, 1829-1888. 

40. George L, the present King of Greece, is of 
German descent. His father is King of Denmark; 
one sister is Princess of Wales, another Czarina 
of Russia. His wife is a Russian grand- duchess. 
King George accepted the throne of Greece in 
1863, at the invitation of the National Assembly, 
and has kept a good degree of the popular favor 
with which he was greeted at the time of his 
first arrival at Athens. This is no easy thing to 
accomplish, for the Greeks demand much more 



The Men of Later Greece. 193 

Turkish territory than the great States of Europe 
think it expedient to grant, and it is only by the 
exercise of extreme care that war has been 
avoided. Under King George Athens has be- 
come a thriving city of eighty-four thousand 
inhabitants. Public works have been inaugurated, 
a ship canal through the isthmus of Corinth and 
several railways being among the more recent 
undertakings. 

The name of King George closes the record of 
eminent names in the history of Greece. 



S*XTH PERIOD OUTLINES, No. 7. 
1829-1888 A. D. 

Peace of Adrianople . . 1829 A. D. I Otto, king 1832 A. D. 

Greece independent.. . 1829 A. D. | George, of Denmark. . 1863 A. D. 



Review Outline. PapwT III — Biography. 

1. Heroic. 1. Cecrops (Moses), 1550 B. C. 2. Cadmus 

(Exodus), 1493. 3. Pelops (Ruth and Deborah), 1300. 
4. Perseus (Tli. Or. Per. Her. Min.). 5. Codrus (David), 
1045. 

2. Homeric. 6. Homer (Elijah), 896. 7. Lycurgus (Isaiah), 

776. 

3. Historico-traditional. 8. Aristodemus, 725. 9. Aristo- 

menes, 700. 10. Tyrtseus, 700. 11. Draco, 624. 12. 
Solon, 600 (B. C. C. P. P. S. T. and S.). 13. Pisistratus 
(H. and H.) 14. Clisthenes, 510. 

4. Greater Greece. 

I. Persian" Wars. 15. Miltiades, 490. 16. Xerxes, 480. 
17. Leonidas, 480. 18. Themistocles, 480. 19. Pau- 
sanias, 471. 20. Aristides, 468. * 
13 



194 



Outline History of Greece. 



II. Athenian. 21. Cimon, 449. 22. Pericles, 429. 23. 
Alcibiades, 404. 24. Lysander, 405. 

III. Spartan. 25. Thrasybulus, 403. 26. Xenophon, 400. 

27. Socrates, 399. 

IV. Theban. 28. Pelopidas, 371. 29. Epaminondas, 362. 
V. Macedonian. 30. Philip, 336. 31. Demosthenes, 352. 

32. Alexander, 323. 33. Antipater, 322. 34. Pyr- 
rhus, 2*72. 35. Aratus, 218. 36. Philopoemen, 183. 

5. Subject Greece. 37. Mummius, 146. 38. Paul, 66 A. D. 

39. Justinian, 565 A. D. 

6. Liberated Greece. 40. King George, 1863 A. D. 




GENERAL REVIEW OUTLINE. 



I. PRELIMINARY. 



1. Boundaries: M. M. I. A. M. Dist. 

2. Divisions: C. P. I. C. (a. b. a). 

3. Peculiarities of Greece, 6 ; of Greeks, 5 ; unities, 6 ; dis- 

union, 2. 

II. HISTORY. 

1. Earliest Greece.— Heroic, 20-10 1000 

2. Earlier Greece.— Homeric, 10-7 224 

3. Early Greece.— History and Tradition, 7-5 ... . 276 

4. Greater Greece, 5-1 354 

1 . Persian, 5-4 21 

2. Athens, 4-4 75 

3. Sparta, 4-3 33 

4. Thebes, 3-3 10 

5. Maoedon, 3-1 215 

5. Subject Greece, 1-18 . . 1975 

1. Rome, 1-3 541 

2. Byzantium, 3-14 1058 

3. Turkey, 14-18 376 

6. Liberated Greece, 18-18 59 

III. BIOGRAPHY. 

1. The first comer from Egypt — from Phenicia — from Phrygia. 

2. The five famous "heroes." 

3. The "last king" of Athens, and why he was "last." 

4. The greatest poet of the ages. 

5. How did Alexander appreciate him. 



196 Outline History of Greece. 

6. The Laconian lawgiver, and why he died in a foreign land. 
*1. Two commanders and one poet connected with the Mes- 
senian wars. 

8. A mistaken lawgiver, seven sages, and a poetess — who 

were these nine ? 

9. One of the sages said a wise thing to an actor — what? 

10. The first royal editor of Homer — his sons and their suc- 

cessor. 

11. The leaders and battles of the Persian wars in Greece. 

12. Which was the bravest of all, and why? 

13. Who was called the "Just?" 

14. The greatest Athenian ruler, his predecessors, and suc- 
cessors. 

15. Give some fact concerning each of the following: Lysan- 

der, Thrasybulus, Xenophon, Socrates. 

16. Two Theban commanders, and two great battles. 

17. The plotting king from the north, and the mighty orator 

of Athens. 

18. The young conqueror. 

19. The conquering nation from the west. 

20. The conquering preacher from the east. 

21. The eastern rule of a thousand years. 

22. The new king of the new Greece. 

23. The present King of Greece. 




PRONUNCIATION OF FOREIGN WORDS AND NAMES. 



A-by'dus. 
Ac-ar-na/ni-a. 

A-chae'an (keO. 

A-eba'i-a (-kaO. 

A-chil'les (-kilO. 

A-crop-o-lis. 

Ac'ti-um. 

A-dri-at/ic. 

A-dri-an-6'ple. 

iE-ga/le-os. 

iE-ge'an GeO- 

JE-%Vn& (jT / ). 

iE-gos-pot/a-mi. 

JE-o^i-an. 

M'o-\as. 

iEs'chi-nes (ke). 

^Es'chy-lus. 

^'sop. 

^E-to'li-a. 

Af-ghan-is-tan'. 

Ag-a-raem'non. 

A-ges-i-la/us (jes). 

Ag'o-ra. 

A-has u-e'rus. 

Al-ci-bi'a-des. 

Al-ex-an'der. 

A-lex'an-dn'a. 

Am-phic-ty-on'ic. 

Am-phip'o-lis. 

A-nab'a-sis. 

A-na/cre-on. 

An-ax-ag'o-ras. 

An-tal'ci-das. 

An'ti-och. 

An-tip'a-ter. 

A-poFlo. 

A-ra/tus. 

Ar-be'la. 

Au'chon (kon). 

Ar-chim-e'des. 

A-re-op'a-gus. 

Ar'go-lis. 



Ar go-nau'tic. 

Ar'give (jive). 

Ar-is-ti'des. 

A-ris-to-de'mus. 

A-ris-to-gl'ton (ji). 

Ar-is-torn'e-nes. 

Av is-topk'a-nes. 

Ar'is-tot-le. 

Ar-ta-pher'nes. 

Ar-tax-erx'es. 

Ar-te-mis'i-um. 

A-the'na. 

Ath'ens. 

A'thos. 

At/ti-ca. 

Au'ge-as (je). 

Bab'y-Ion. 
Bab-y-16'ni-a. 
Bae'tri-a. 
Bal-kan'. 

Ba-va/ri-a. 

Bel-i-sa'ri-us. 

Bel-loo-chis-tan'. 

Bel-shaz'zar. 

Be-re'a. 

Bl'as. 

Boe 6'ti-a (Be-5'she-a). 

Bok-ha/ra. 

Bos'pbo-rus. 

Boz-zar'is. 

Bras'i-das. 

Bren'nus. 

Bru'tus. 

Bu-ceph'a-lus. 

By-zan'ti-um. 

By-zan'tine. 

Cad-me'a. 

Cae'sar. 

Cam-by'ses. 



Ca'naan. 
Ca-na/ris. 

Car'thage. 

Car-tba-gin'i-an (jinO- 
Cas'pi-an. 
Cas'si-us. 
Cas-ta'li-a. 
Ce'crops (SeO. 
Cen'taur (SenO. 
Cer-a-ml'cus (Ser). 
Cer'be-rus (SerO- 
Ce'res(SeO. 
Chal-de'ans (Kal). 
Chasr-o-ne'a (Ker). 
Chal-dees' (Kal). 
Chi'lo (KIO. 
Chi'os (KIO. 
Ci-lic'i-an (Si). 
Ci'raon (SIO. 
Cle-o-bu'lus. 
Cle'on. 
Cle-o-pa'tra. 
Clis'tbe-nes. 
C6 / drus. 
Col'cbis. 
Co-los'sus. 
Co'non. 
Con'stan-tine. 
Con-stan-ti-no'ple. 
Cor-cy'ra. 
Corinth. 
Co-rin'thi-a. 
Cor-o-ne'a. .., 
Oit/i-as. 
Croe'sus (CreO* 
Cu-nax'a. 
Cy'clops (SyO- 
Cy-clo'pe-an (Sy). 
Cy-no-ceph / a-la3 (Sy). 
Cy-re'ne (Sv). 
Cy-ro-pae-di'a (Sy). 
Cy'prus (SyO. 



198 



Pronunciation, Etc. 



Cy'rus (Sy'). 
Cy-the'ra (Sy). 

Da-mas'cus. 

Dan'a-e. 

Dau'a-us. 

Dan'ube. 

Dar-da-nelles'. 

Da-n'us. 

Da'tis. 

Deb'o-rah. 

Dec-e-le'a. 

De'li-an. 

De'los. 

Del'phi. 

De-mos'the-nes. 

Di-an'a. 

Do'ri-an. 

Do'ric. 

Do'ris. 

Dra'co. 

Dru'id. 

E-ges'ta (jes r ). 

El-a-te'a. 

E'lis. 

E-pam-i-non'das. 

Eph'-e-sus. 

Eph'ors. 

E-pip'o-lse. 

E-pi'rus. 

Er-ech-the'um. 

E-re'tri-a. 

Eu-boe'a (be'). 

Eu'-ciid. 

Eu'pa-trid. 

Eu-phra'tes. 

Eu-rid'i -ce. 

Eu-rip'i-des. 

Eu-ry-bi'a-des. 

Eu-rys'ihe-us. 

Eux'ine. 

Flam-i-ni'ims. 

Ga/des. 
Garages (jeez). 
Ga'za. 

Ge'ry-on (JeO. 
Gor'di-an. 
Gor'di-um, 



Grae'ci-a. 
Gra-ni'cus. 

Gre'ci-an. 

Hai-'mo'di-us. 

Han'ni-bal. 

Har'mosts. 

Hellas. 

Hel-le'nes. 

Hel-len'i-ca. 

Hel'les-pc-nt. 

Hel'ots. 

Her'a-cles. 

Her-a-clI'dae. 

Her'cu-les. 

Hermes. 

Her'mae. 

Hes'i-od. 

Hes-per'i-des. 

Hip-par'chus (kus). 

Ilip'pi-as. 

Hip-poc'ra-tes. 

Ho'mer. 

Hop-H'tes. 

Hy-met/tus. 

U'i-ad. 

I-lis'sus. 

TKi-um. 

Il-lyr'i-an. 

Tn'di-a. 

In'dus. 

I-o'-ni-an. 

I-on'ic. 

I-sai'os. 

I-soc'ra-tes. 

Ts'sus. 

Isth'mi-an. 

It'-a-ly. 

It-al'i-an. 

Ith'a-ca. 

Ja'son. 

Je-ho'vah. 

Jeph'thah. 

Je-ru'sa-lem. 

Ju'pi-ter. 

Jus-tin'i-an. 

Ko'ran. 



Lac-e-das'mon (Las). 

La-co'ni-a. 

Lam'-a-chus (kus). 

La/mi-an. 

Lau'ri-um. 

Lem'nos. 

Le-on'i-das. 

Les'bos. 

Leuc'tra. 

Lo'cris. 

Ly-cur'gus (kui'0. 

Lyd'i-a. 

Ly-san'der. 

Mac'e-don (Mas') 

Mac-e-do'ni-a (Mas). 

Mag'na Gras'ci-a. 

Malic. 

Ma'lis. 

jMan-ti-rse'a. 

Mar'a-thon. 

Mar-do'ni-ns. 

Mar-seilles' (sailz'). 

Med-i-ter-ra/ne-an. 

Me'don. 

Me-du'sa. 

Meg-a-lop'o-lis. 

IWeg'a-ra. 

Meg'a-ris. 

Me-hem'-et A'li. 

Me-le-a'ger Ger). 

Mem'non. 

Mem-o-ra-bil'i-a. 

Me-nan'der. 

Men-e-la'us. 

Mes-se'ne. 

Mes-se'ni-a. 

Mi'das. 

Mi-au'lis. 

Mil-ti'a-des. 

Mi-ner'va. 

Mi'nos. 

Min'o-taur. 

Mith-ri-da'tes. 

Mo-ham'med-an. 

Myc'a-le. 

My-ce'nae (seO. 

Nar'ses. 

Nav-a-r^no (reeO. 
Ne-ar'chus (kus). 



Pronunciation^ Etc. 



199 



Ne'me a. 
Nep'tune. 
Nic'i-as (NisO. 

Oc-tii/vi-us. 

O-daj'um. 

Od'ys-sey. 

(Ed'i-pus. 

O-lym'pi-a. 

O-lym'pi-ad. 

O-lym'pus. 

O'raar. 

O-lyn'thus. 

On-o-mar'chus. 

Or'phe-us. 

Os'sa, 

Ox'us. 

Pal'es-tine. 

Pan-Ath-en-aMc. 

Pan-Hel-len'ic. 

Pa'ris. 

Par-nas'sus. 

Pa'ros. 

Par'the-non. 

Pat/mos. 

Pau-sa'ni-as. 

Pe-las'gi-ans Qi). 

Pe'li-o-n. 

Pel'la. 

Pe-lop'i-das. 

Pel'o-pon-ne'sus. 

Pelops. 

Pe-ne'ius. 

Pen-tel'i-cus. 

Pe-ri-an'der. 

Per'i-cles. 

Per-i-ce'ci. 

Per-sep'o-lis. 

Per'se-us. 

Per'si-a. 

Pha'lanx. 

Pha'ra-oh. 

Pha'ros. 

Phar-sa'lus. 

Phe-m'ci-a. 

Phil-Hel'lenes. 



Phi-lip'pi. 

Phil-o-poe'men. 

Pho'ci-on. 

Phryg'i-a (PhryJO. 

Pin'dar. 

Pi-rae / us. 

Pi-sis'tra-tus. 

Pis-is-trat/i-dae. 

Pit/ta-cus. 

Pla-tae'a. 

Pla'to. 

Plu'tarch(taik). 

Pnyx (Pnix). 

Po-lyb'i-us. 

Po-lyc'ra-tes. 

Pon'tus. 

Port/u-gal. 

Po-sei'don. 

Prax-it/e-les. 

Prus'si-a. 

Ptol'e-my. 

Pu'nic. 

Pyd'na (Pid'). 

Pylus. 

Pyr'rhus (PirO. 

Pyth-ag'o-ras (Pith). 

Pyth'i-an (Pith'). 

Rhe'gi-um (j\). 
Rhodes. 
Rox-a/na. 
Rus'si-a. 

Sad'o-wa (va). 

Sal'a-mis. 

Sa-mar-cand'. 

Sii'mos. 

Sap'pho (Saf'fo). 

Sar'dis. 

Sa'irap. 

Schlie'mann. 

Scip'i-o(Sip'). 

Se-11'nus. 

Se-leu'cus. 

Sep'tu-a-gint (jint). 

Si'ci-ly. 



SI'don. 

Sl-mon'i-des. 

Soi'o-mon. 

Solon. 

So-phl'a. 

Soph'o-cles. 

Spar'ta. 

Sphac-te'ri-a. 

Stym-pha'lis. 

Su'ni-um. 

Su'sa. 

Sym-po'si-um. 

Syr-a-cu'sans. 

Syv'a-cuse. 

Syr'i-a. 

Tar'shish. 

Tai'sus. 

Tem'pe. 

Teutons. 

Thames. 

Thebes (Theebs). 

The'ban. 

The-mis'to-cles. 

The-oc / ri-tus. 

Ther-mop'y-lse. 

The'se-us. 

Thes'pis. 

Thes-sa-lo-nl'ca. 

Thes'sa-ly. 

Thrace. 

Thra'ci-an. 

Thras-y-bu'lus. 

Ti'ber. 

Tigris. 

TiVyns. 

Tis-sa-pher'nes. 

Tyre (Tire). 

Van'dals. 
VuKcan. 

Xen'o-phon. 
Xerx'es. 

Zeus (Zuse). 



INDEX 



Achaean League, 116, 187. 

Achaia, 117, 190. 

Acropolis, 50, 58, 164. 

Actium, 119. 

^ffospotami, 76, 168, 169. 

JEolian, 18, 25, 26. 

iEschines, 182. 

JEscnylus, 62, 148. 

^Esop, 146. 

iEtolian League, U6, 187. 

Agamemnon, 26, 138. 

Alcibiades, 71 ; deserts to Sparta ; 
73; returns to Athens, 75; bi- 
ography, 167. 

Alexander, 99; empire of (map), 
102; king of Maredon, 103; 
commander of Greek army, 
104; destroys Thebes, 105; in 
Asia, 105; at Gordiura, 106; 
Issus, 107; Alexandria, 108; 
Arbela, 109 ; India, 111 ; death 
of, 112; value of his conquests, 
113 ; character, 183. 

Alexandria, 108, 114. 

Amphictyonic Council, 20; decree 
against Phocians, 96 ; invite 
Philip, 97; accept Alexander, 
104. 

Amphipolis, 71. 

Anabasis, 80, 172. 

Anacreon, 147. 

Anaxagoras, 150. 

Antalcidas, Peace of, 83. 

Antioch, 114. 

Antipater, 185. 

Aratus, 186. 

Archimedes, 1S6. 

Archons, 37, 40, 140. 

Areopagus, 164. 

Arginusae, 75. 

Argive League, 72. 

Argonautic Expedition, 14, 29, 141. 

Argos, 13; founded, 27, 137; Pe- 
lopidae, 138. 

Aristides ostracized, 47; recalled, 
50; life, 156. 



Aristodemus, 144. 

Aristomenes, 144. 

Aristophanes, 62, 178. 

Aristotle, tutor of Alexander, 103, 
142 ; dates, 178. 

Artemisium, 49. 

Aryan family, 19, 25. 

Asia Minor, colonies in, 12, 13. 

Athens, Ionian city, 26; under 
kings and archons, 34 ; Solon's 
reforms, 38 ; Pisistratidae, 39 ; 
Clisthenes's reforms, 40 ; head 
of Delian League, 56; forti- 
fied, 58; under Pericles, 60; 
plague, 68; fall, 76; Thirty 
Tyrants, 78 ; intellectual pros- 
perity, 79; "Social War," 95; 
opposes Philip, 99 ; subdued, 
99; revolts, 115; Cecrops, 137; 
in age of Pericles, 161 ; map, 
164. 

Athos, 47. 

Attica, 13, 14 ; atmosphere, 16 ; 
Ionic stronghold, 26. 

Bceotia, 13 ; subject to Athens, 60. 
Brasidas, 69 ; northern campaign, 

70, 166. 
Byzantium. (See Constantinople.) 

Cadmea, 83, 86, 137. 

Cadmus represents Phenicia, 27; 

legend, 137. 
Calydonian Boar Hunt, 29. 
Cecrops founds Athens, 27; 

legend, 137. 
Chseronea, 99. 
Christianity in Greek cities, 120; 

accepted religion, 123. 
Cimon, 57, 159. 
Cleombrotus, 86. . 
Cleon, 68 ; at Sphacteria, 69 ; death 

at Amphipolis, 71 ; career, 166. 
Clisthenes, 40, 148. 
Codrus, 34, 140. 
Colonies, 13 ; map, 64 ; in Asia, 43. 



202 



History of Greece — Index. 



Constantine, 121. 

Constantinople, 121 ; center of 

Greek life, 122 ; taken by 

Turks, 124. 
Corinth, stirs up Pel. war, 66; 

congress of, 99, 104 ; destroyed, 

117, 190. 
Croesus, 44. 
Cynoeephalae, 116. 
Cyrus, the elder, 43 ; the younger, 

80. 

Danaus, founds Argos, 27, 137. 

Darius I., invades Greece, 44. 

Darius II., defeated, 109. 

Decelea, 74. 

Delos, Confederacy of, 56. 

Delphi, 14 ; oracle at, 47, 49, 140 ; 
Apollo's shrine, 95. 

Democracy at Athens, 41, 149. 

Demosthenes opposes Philip, 97; 
dies, 115; life, 180. 

Demosthenes, the general, 69 ; in 
Sicily, 73; death, 74, 166. 

Disunion in Greece, 21. 

Dorians, 25; invasion of Pelo- 
ponnesus, 26 ; in Sicily, 72. 

Draco, 38, 145. 

Eastern Empire, 121, 122; fall, 124. 

Egypt, 23; influence on Greece, 
27; under Ptolemies, 113. 

Elis, 13, 15. 

Epaminondas, 84 ; defeats Spar- 
tans, 87 ; dies, 91 ; character, 
177. 

Ephors, 34. 

Epirus, 116. 

Eretria destroyed, 45. 

Euclid, 186. 

Eupatrids, 34, 38. 

Euripides, 157. 

Eurybiades at Salamis, 50. 

Games, four national, 20; nature 
of, 35. 

Gauls, 115. 

George I., 129, 192. 

Gordium, 106. 

Granicus, 106. 

Greece Proper (Hellas), map, 10; 
. situation, 11; divisions, 12; nat- 
ural peculiarities, 14; a Ro- 
man province, 117 ; under 
Byzantium, 122; under Turks, 
124 ; liberated, 129. 

Greek Empire. (See Eastern Em- 
pire.) 



Greeks, characteristics, 17-21 
origin, 25; foreign influences, 
27 ; in Homer's time, 32 ; dis- 
pirited, 118; aspirations, 130, 
131. 

Harmosts, 84. 

Hellas, 11. (See Greece.) 

Hellenes, 11. (See Greeks.) 

Helots, 33. 

Heraelidae, 139, 140. 

Hercules, 29, 139 ; labors of, 140. 

Hermaa mutilated, 73. 

Herodotus, 54, 157. 

Heroes, 27, 138, 141. 

Heroic Age, 23. 

Hesiod, 142. 

Hippias, Tyrant of Athens, 40; 

banished, 40 ; incites Persians, 

43 ; dies, 46. 
Hippocrates, 159. 
Homer, 31, 141. 
Homeric Age, 31. 
Hoplites, 66, 87. 

India, 111. 

Ionian s, 25 ; revolt of I. cities, 44 ; 

against Dorians in Sicily, 72. 
Israel, 23. 
Issus, 107. 

Justinian, 123, 191. 
Kallias, Peace of, 58. 

Lacedsemon, 15. (See Sparta.) 

Laconia, 13; Doric stronghold, 26, 

Lamian War, 115, 185. 

Leonidas at Thermopylae, 48 ; life, 
152. 

Leuctra, 86. 

Long AValls, 59 ; rebuilt, 83. 

Lycurgus, 33 ; anecdotes, 143. 

Lysander conquers Athens, 76 ; es- 
tablishes oligarchies, 77 ; 
death, 83 ; life, 169. 

Macedonia, 12 ; location, 90 ; Phil- 
ip, 93 ; Alexander, 103; subject 
to Rome, 117 ; to Turks, 124. 

Magna Graecia, 12, 13. 

Mantinea, 72 ; second battle, 91. 

Marathon, 45, 150. 

Mardonius, first expedition, 45; 
left in Greece, 52; at Plataea, 53. 

Megalopolis, founded, 89. 

Menander, 186. 

Messene, founded, 89. 



History of Greece — Index. 



203 



Messenia, 13 ; war with Sparta, 

30, 144. 
Miltiades, 45, 150. 
Minos, 139. 
Modem Greece, 127. 
Muimnius, lyO. 
Mycale, 53. 
Mvceoae, 25, 26, 138. 
Mythology, 28, 137. 

Navariuo, 129. 

New Testament, 120. 

Nicias, 68 ; at Pylus, 69 ; Peace of, 

71; in Sicily, 73; death, 74; 

career, 166. 

Oligarchy, at Sparta, 34 ; in Athens, 
75 ; in subject States, 77, 78. 

Olympia, situation, 15; games, 20, 
35 ; Olympiad, 36. 

Olvnthus, 97. 

Orpheus, 139. 

Ostracism, 40. 

Otto I., 129. 

Pan-Hellenism, 131. 

Parnassus, 14, 95. 

Paul, 120, 190. 

Pausanias at Platsea, 53 ; char- 
acter, 155. 

Pelasgians, 25. 

Pelopidas liberates Thebes, 84; 
conquers Thessaly, 90; char- 
acter, 177. 

Pelops, Phrygian emigrant, 27, 
138. 

Peloponnesian War, causes, 65; 
early years, 66 ; Sphacteria, 69 ; 
Amphipolis, 71 ; Peace of Ni- 
cias, 71; Argive League, 72; 
Sicilian Expedition, 72-74; 
surrender, 75. 

Peloponnesus, 13. 

Pericles, 60 ; kk funeral oration," 
67 ; death, 68 ; life, 160. 

Periceci, 33. 

Perseus, 139. 

Persia, history, 43; attacks Greece, 
45 ; effect of Persian war, 55 ; 
Peace of Kallias, 58 ; Peace of 
Antalcidas, 83 ; conquered by 
Alexander, 110. 

Phalanx, 86, 94. 

Pharsalus, 119. 

Phenicians, early civilization, 24 ; 
influence on Greeks, 27. 

Phil-Hellenism, 128. 

Philip of Macedon, 90, 93 ; army 
reforms, 94; enters Thessaly, 



96 ; enters Greece, 98 ; Greek 
commander-in-chief, 100; mur- 
dered, 100; biographical no- 
tice, 180. 

Philippi, 119. 

Philippics, 97, 183. 

Philopoemen, 187. 

Phocians, seize Delphi, 95 ; league 
with Athens, 96; punished, 
98. 

Phocis, 14, 15; subject to Athens, 
60. 

Pindar, 105, 148. 

Piraeus, 59. 

Pisistratus, 39, 147. 

Plague at Athens, 68. 

Platsea at Marathon, 45; battle 
of, 53. 

Plato, 175. 

Plutarch, 191. 

Polybius, 190. 

Pydna, 117. 

Pylus, 69. 

Pyrrhus, 116, 186. 

Religion, 19 ; changed, 123. 
Retreat of M Ten Thousand," 80, 

171. 
Revolution, 127. 
Rome, 116; subdues Greece, 117; 

division, 121. 

Sacred Band, 85 ; destroyed, 99. 

Sacred Plain, 15, 95, 98. 

Sacred War, 95, 98. 

Salamis, 51. 

Sard is burned, 44. 

Sarissa, 94. 

Schliemann, Dr., 26. 

Seleucus, 114. 

Septuagint, 114. 

Seven against Thebes, 141. 

Seven Wise Men of Greece, 146. 

Sicily, a Greek colony, 12 ; Athe- 
nian Expedition, 72 ; its utter 
failure, 74. 

Simonides, 49, 148. 

Socrates, 79, 173. 

Solon, reforms, 38 ; life, 145. 

Sparta, 13 ; character, 15 ; Dorian 
city, 26 ; constitution, 33 ; early 
conquests, 36 ; leader of Pelo- 
ponnesus, 37 ; loses leadership, 
56 ; second supremacy, 78 ; 
war with Persia, 82; league 
against, 82 ; Peace of Antalci- 
das, 83 ; humbled by Thebes, 
87. 

Sphacteria, 69. 



204 



History of Greece — Index. 



Syracuse, Siege of, 73. 

Syria, 114. 

Tempe, 15, 47. 

Thebes, founded, 27, 137 ; against 
Sparta, 82; wins supremacy, 
87 ; destroyed, 105. 

Themistocles, policy, 47; life, 
153. 

Theocritus, 186. 

Thermopylae, 15 ; Leonidas at, 48 ; 
152 ; Philip at, 96 ; Philip capt- 
ures, 98. 

Theseus, 139. 



Thessaly, 13, 14, 15; subject to 
Thebes, 90; in Sacred War, 
96. 

Thrasybulus, 78. 

Trojan War, 29, 141. 

Turks, conquest, 123 ; oppression, 
125 ; in Europe, 130. 

Tyrants, 39 ; the Thirty," 78. 

Tyrtaeus, 37, 144. 

Xenophon, 80, 171. 
Xerxes invades Greece, 47; re- 
treats, 51 ; anecdotes, 151. 



THE END. 




